Honolulu police officers plead not guilty in crash, cover-up

HONOLULU — Four Honolulu police officers pleaded not guilty on Thursday to fees associated with their roles in a cover-up of a high-speed chase that resulted in a crash and a hectic mind damage to the motive force of every other automobile.

The officers entered their pleas sooner than Circuit Court Judge Christine E. Kuriyama, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

One officer, Joshua J.S. Nahulu, 37, pleaded not guilty to a price for a collision that resulted in severe physically damage. He faces as much as 10 years in jail if convicted.

Officers Erik X.Ok. Smith, 25, Jake R.T. Bartolome, 35, and Robert G. Lewis III, whose age was once not indexed in charging paperwork, every pleaded not guilty to at least one criminal depend for hindering prosecution and every other criminal depend for conspiracy. The first price is punishable by way of as much as 5 years in jail, the second one by way of as much as twelve months.

The 4 officers have been dispatched to reply to a noise criticism at a Waianae seaside park at 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2021, in step with courtroom paperwork.

That’s after they noticed a white Honda go out the parking space to Farrington Highway. A civil lawsuit alleges Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome one at a time chased the Honda at excessive speeds the usage of two marked Honolulu Police Department automobiles and one automobile backed by way of police. It says the chase endured till the Honda “left the roadway and crashed.”

The officers never commanded the Honda’s driver to stop nor did they turn on their blue lights and sirens, the lawsuit states.

Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome drove past the crash scene without stopping, after which they met Lewis at nearby Waianae Intermediate School, prosecutors said.

Smith, Bartolome and Lewis have been then dispatched to the crash website online, but if they arrived, the officers behaved as despite the fact that they’d no prior wisdom of the collision, charging paperwork say.