Even though the city is settling a police brutality lawsuit for $35,000, the Honolulu Police Department will not disclose whether any of the officers involved were disciplined.
The city is settling a lawsuit with a 46-year-old man who sued the city and four police officers, saying the officers violently assaulted him during an illegal traffic stop Jan. 26, 2010.
Attorney Eric Seitz said his client, Dewitt Long, who was recently convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2012 in Ewa Beach, and accused of sexually assaulting another teen at a hotel, is settling the case for $35,000.
The city denies there was any wrongdoing, and in an email Thursday, the city said Long’s allegations have not been proved.
“The settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing of any kind by the city or any of its officers,” the city said in a statement last week.
However, a circuit judge in October 2010 dismissed the case police initiated against Long for allegedly carrying a knife, saying police lacked facts to explain why Sgt. David Yomes, dressed in plain clothes and driving an unmarked car, initially stopped Long without probable cause.
Long was pulled over on Punchbowl Street. According to the civil complaint, in removing Long from his vehicle, Yomes’ service revolver fell to the ground, prompting a violent assault in which the officers forced Long face down on the ground and handcuffed him.
Long was treated at the Queen’s Medical Center, and shortly afterward told the Star-Bulletin he was beaten and kicked while he was on the ground, and his arm was twisted behind him. At the time his arm was in a sling, he had a black eye that was swollen, and he was wearing a leg brace.
The four officers named in the lawsuit were Yomes, Winston Leong, Randall Rivera and Scott Nakasone.
In 2011, in response to questions from the Star-Advertiser, the Honolulu Police Commission said it had completed an investigation but did not disclose what the investigation found.
A spokeswoman for the Honolulu Police Department said due to privacy concerns she could not say whether any of the officers named in the lawsuit had been disciplined. None of them had been discharged.
