Newswatch


By Star-Bulletin Staff

Tuesday, July 29, 1997

4 female cops want city
to pay $3.5 million

The attorney for four female police officers who say they were assaulted by city doctors wants $3.5 million to settle the claims.

But Elizabeth Jubin Fujiwara's public confirmation of the suggested settlement amount has Deputy Corporation Counsel Chris Parsons accusing her of attempting to try the case before the media.

Fujiwara said the severity of the claims warrants that each of her clients receives $1 million.

The four women say they were sexually touched during routine physicals by city doctors over the past three years.

Nonetheless, she said, her clients would accept a "global settlement" of $3.5 million.

Fujiwara last week filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court on behalf of one of the clients. The other three have not filed suit.

Fujiwara's willingness to discuss the matter with reporters angered Parsons. "It's very hard to negotiate this if it is all in public," he said. "But if she wants to try the case in the press, that's her choice."

"The whole idea is people have a chance to talk about the issues in a frank way without fear of repercussions later," he said.

Robber gets 18 years, 9 months
for hitting five banks in 1994

A 33-year-old man who pleaded guilty to five bank robberies in 1994 said he suffered from paranoid delusions and asked a federal judge to consider his state of mind before sentencing.

"I felt like I was under a threat, like someone was trying to harm me," James L. Keen said yesterday in federal court.

But U.S. District Judge David Ezra stressed the terror Keen evoked during his bank robberies and sentenced him to 18 years and nine months, at the high end of a possible term of 188 to 235 months.

He cited a 1994 evaluation in which experts said Keen had some psychological history but knew right from wrong and had a "well-established criminal personality."

Ezra also said he had no confidence in Keen's rehabilitation and predicted he would revert to violent criminal behavior, calling it Keen's path of least resistence.

"You caused a tremendous amount of difficulty for a lot of people with your behavior and threats of violence," Ezra said, reminding Keen that he had once terrorized tellers with a grenade and objects people believed were handguns.

He also ordered Keen to pay restitution to banks in the amount of $5,192 to International Savings and Loan for two robberies; $1,492 to Bank of America; $317 to Pio

neer Federal; and $1,012 to City Bank.

Maui man who lied to
bank, IRS will serve 1 year

A former Maui businessman who pleaded guilty to conspiring to evade taxes, file false returns and defraud a bank in 1988-1990 has received the minimum prison term for his offenses under federal guidelines.

U.S. District Judge Alan Kay yesterday sentenced Scott Emmons to one year in prison from a range of 12 to 18 months, saying the defendant accepted responsibility and didn't have a prior criminal record.

"You will not see me in this courtroom again," Emmons said before his sentencing. "I've learned much."

Emmons and his former wife, Marsha Rossee, former president of the defunct Maui Employment Services Inc., pleaded guilty to the charges.

Clayton Sketoe, who prepared their tax returns, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud.

Rossee received a prison term of six months; Sketoe is scheduled for sentencing Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Les Osborne said Emmons and Rossee filed false loan applications and tax returns, telling the bank they had lots of money and telling the IRS that they had "no money."

See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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Police/Fire


By Star-Bulletin staff

Aiea resident charged
with killing brother

Police yesterday charged a 39-year-old Aiea man with the killing of his younger brother.

Police are holding Timothy Culkin on $100,000 bail after he allegedly stabbed his brother, Thomas, 38, to death Sunday morning at Culkin's Honomanu Street home.

Police said the two brothers began fighting after Thomas arrived at his brother's home with a woman.

Police said the brother had two puncture wounds to the chest. He died on the way to Pali Momi Medical Center.

Cops want information
about beating death

Police are seeking information about the July 23 beating death of a 51-year-old man who was discovered lying on a sidewalk near Ala Moana.

Myron K. Nakao was found near Makaloa and Amana streets with multiple bruises to his face.

Anyone with information is asked to call homicide Detectives Stephen Dung or Allen Castro at 529-3115 or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.

Youth, 15, arrested
in Kailua school fire

Police arrested a 15-year-old boy yesterday for setting fire to Kailua Intermediate School.

Police said neighborhood children identified the boy to police as the suspect who set fire to the school's janitor closet on Friday night.

The fire caused $1,500 in damages to the structure. Police are holding the boy at a detention home because they have not been able to find the boy's mother, who police believe is living on the beach in Waimanalo.

In other police/fire news:

Police seeking man in attempted drowning

Maui police seek trio in Kihei robbery

Big Isle man arrested for a string of offenses

Maui man was victim in Big Island accident

Police honor man in purse-snatching

See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
See our [Info] section for subscription information.





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