Witnesses describe seeing a ‘drunk’ officer hitting utility pole
Former policeman on trial for DUI
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The Maui News
WAILUKU -- A former Maui Police Department officer's white Toyota Tacoma truck was seen hitting a cement pillar and sideswiping a parked car before it crashed into a utility pole on South Kihei Road, according to witnesses.
The vehicle owner, identified as Mousa Kawas, 28, of Kihei, was described as "beyond drunk" before the crash in the early-morning hours of Feb. 10, according to testimony at his DUI trial in Wailuku District Court.
At the time, Kawas was off duty and employed as a police officer.
Police said Monday that Kawas, who was last assigned to the Wailuku Patrol District, was no longer employed by MPD as of Nov. 30.
When Kawas' trial began Dec. 7, Uber driver Merriette Harp testified she was smoking a cigarette outside her truck in a loading area near Foodland while waiting for another Uber request when she saw a man get into the driver's side of a Toyota Tacoma truck in the Kihei Kalama Village parking lot at about 2 a.m. Feb. 10.
The truck didn't have its headlights on as it pulled out of the parking lot onto Keala Place and smashed into a cement pillar, just missing her and her truck, Harp said. She said the bumper was partially ripped off the Toyota truck and was hanging as the truck went mauka on the street toward a residential area and sideswiped a parked vehicle.
"I thought the person would get out and assess the situation," Harp said.
She said she was "frazzled" when she called 911.
"I almost got hit, my truck almost got hit," she said. "That was pretty shocking."
Harp provided a license plate number for the truck after it had turned around, and she saw it go right onto South Kihei Road.
The truck was registered to Kawas.
Through the window tint on the truck, Harp said she "could see a figure in the driver's seat."
She said she didn't see a passenger in the truck.
Kihei resident Huali Borges, who lives in the 1100 block of South Kihei Road about seven minutes from Foodland, said she was sleeping when "I heard a crash and the electricity surged."
She said she walked outside and saw the truck with its front smashed into a fence and a utility pole with a transformer.
"I wasn't sure if I wanted to actually look into the cab," said Borges, who was standing by the tailgate. "It was a traumatic scene."
She said she saw someone stumble out of the passenger side of the truck and recognized him as Codie Chong. "Then I ran to him to help stabilize him," Borges testified. "He was disoriented."
She said the driver eventually got out of the truck.
Chong, who at the time was a police recruit, had gone to Kihei Kalama Village that night with three other recruits, including now-officer Andrew Szczepan, who testified Dec. 7.
Szczepan said the recruits took an Uber to the complex to celebrate one recruit's birthday and saw Kawas, who was drinking alcohol in a bar.
After arriving at the bar at 10 or 10:30, the recruits had one beer before leaving and going to another bar in the complex, Szczepan said.
He said Kawas was "a little bit drunk."
Asked by Deputy Prosecutor Johann Smith if he remembered saying in a recorded police Internal Affairs statement that Kawas was "beyond drunk," Szczepan said, "I said that at the end of the night."
He said Kawas was more intoxicated when he showed up at the bar where the recruits had gone.
"I went and talked to him to see if he was OK," Szczepan said. "At that time, yes, I thought he should have stopped drinking."
He said the recruits stayed there until about 2 a.m. when the bars closed.
Asked if he thought Kawas could safely drive at that point, Szczepan said no.
He said the recruits couldn't find Chong, and he wasn't answering his phone before Szczepan called a friend to pick up him and the other two recruits.
Szczepan said he hadn't seen Kawas more intoxicated than he was that night.
Kawas has pleaded not guilty to DUI, leaving the scene after striking a vehicle or property, two counts of inattention to driving, reckless driving, no insurance and two counts of lack of due care.
Police said that after the crash, a portion of South Kihei Road was closed for about 12 hours while crews replaced the utility pole.
Judge Kirstin Hamman is presiding over the trial, which was scheduled to resume April 5.