Honolulu, Hawaii

The passengers filed a lawsuit alleging that Honolulu Police Department (HPD) Officers Joshua Nahulu, Erik Smith, and Jake Bartolome conducted an illegal police chase that caused the crash, which led to serious injuries for the passengers such as broken ribs, spinal fractures, and permanent eye damage. Surveillance footage captured most of the chase. The settlement, approved by the City Council’s Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, was awaiting full Council approval as of February 2023. Separate lawsuits from a teen left paralyzed and the driver of the vehicle—who suffered permanent brain injuries—were still pending and could make this one of HPD’s most expensive police pursuit cases.

The lawsuit cast doubt on police testimony. Cameron Johnson was shot by a police officer who had a brief conversation with Johnson while he was in his vehicle and then started firing. Witnesses were right behind Johnson’s vehicle and confirmed that the officer shot Johnson multiple times and that the submitted police testimony of the situation was incorrect.

Jorge Rivera and his mother Jennifer Rivera sued the City and County of Honolulu, officer Kirk Uemura, and others in federal court. The lawsuit alleged that Uemura’s son and Rivera got into a fight over a girl. The following day, Uemura arrested Rivera after following his school bus to a nearby high school. He summoned other officers to take Rivera to the Kailua police station where the young boy was detained in handcuffs. The case highlighted the lack of policy in the Honolulu Police Department to prohibit officers from involving themselves in cases where they have a conflict of interest. A policy has since been recommended by the Honolulu Police Commission.

In 2014, Honolulu paid $1.4 million to the family of Aaron Torres, who was suffocated while in police custody. In March 2019, the Honolulu City Council agreed to pay $550,000 to a retired police lieutenant to resolve a 2009 lawsuit filed against the Honolulu Police Department regarding the conduct of Police Chief Susan Ballard, who improperly tampered with recruits’ test scores when she oversaw the department’s training division.