A man whose beating last year at the hands of a Honolulu police officer was captured on video is suing the city, the police chief and the officer.
Lawyers for Jamie Kalani Rice filed a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday against Officer Ming Wang, Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and the city.
The lawsuit claims that the defendants violated Rice’s constitutional and legal rights and privileges when Wang, 44, used his police-issue baton to beat Rice on Sept. 11, 2014, at a beach in Nanakuli.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration volunteers at the beach recorded the event on video.
One of Rice’s claims is that the defendants violated his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion and speech. Rice told police he was at the beach to chant and share his energy or mana to heal an endangered Hawaiian monk seal, which he believed was sick.
Rice, 41, says the beating was unjustified because he at no time posed a threat to, resisted, threatened or struck Wang. He suffered injuries to both hands, including broken bones in his right hand.
His lawyer, Michael Green, says the video clearly shows “Rice standing with his hands and head down” while Wang beats him until Rice falls to the ground.
Wang went to the beach on a report from the NOAA volunteers that Rice was harassing the monk seal. He said in his police report that Rice refused his orders to step away from the seal.
When Rice did walk away, Wang said, Rice ignored him when he told him that he was under arrest and to stop.
The Honolulu Police Department said it reassigned Wang, a 10-year HPD veteran, to desk duty while it conducted administrative and criminal assault investigations.
HPD returned Wang to patrol duty and forwarded the results of its criminal investigation to city prosecutors.
The prosecutor’s office declined to pursue charges against Wang in June, then later took a second look at the case. The department says the case is pending.
An HPD spokeswoman said the department is unable to comment on the lawsuit because it has not received official notice of it.
Rice was arrested and charged with harassing a monk seal, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He pleaded no contest in October to obstructing a government operation, a misdemeanor, in a deal with the prosecutor.
A state judge sentenced him to five days in jail and ordered his immediate release. By the time of his sentencing, Rice had been in custody since his arrest in September last year.
