The Maui News

One Maui Police Department officer was ordered to be fired and two other officers faced 20-day suspensions with demotions in disciplinary actions last year.

The discharged officer “failed to properly test evidence, threw evidence in the trash, and did not submit evidence” in a 2018 case, according to a police summary of the violations. The discipline was held in abeyance because the officer is no longer employed by MPD, according to police.

Because the status of the case was listed as pending, the officer’s name wasn’t included in MPD’s annual report to the state Legislature on disciplinary actions resulting in suspensions or dismissals of employees in 2020.

Other officers with final dispositions of their cases were named in an amended disciplinary report filed Feb. 3 with the Legislature.

The report lists 10 internal investigations that were concluded in 2020 and resulted in suspensions or dismissals of employees. The prosecutor’s office was notified in four of the cases, police reported.

The Legislature amended the law last year to require police departments to provide the names of officers whose suspensions or terminations were final in the annual reports, starting this year.

A 20-day suspension with demotion was ordered for Daniel Imakyure, who was working as a police officer on Molokai at the time the investigation started in 2019. He “intentionally submitted false and misleading written” documents, according to the report. The discipline was held in abeyance because he is no longer employed with MPD, police reported.

In June 2019, police said Imakyure, then 39 and a 10-year police veteran, was arrested for investigation of first-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and criminal conspiracy, after police investigated information suggesting an officer was connected to drug-related activity on Molokai. At the time, he was released pending further investigation, was placed on administrative leave with pay and had his police powers removed, police said.

A 20-day suspension and demotion also was ordered for Molokai police officer Jonathan Aquino for an “altercation with a prisoner” in 2019.

Court records show that on Jan. 11 in Molokai District Court, Aquino, 51, pleaded no contest to a charge of third-degree assault of a woman on June 4, 2019. He was given credit for one day he had spent in jail and was given a chance to keep the conviction off his record if he complies with court requirements for one year, according to court records. Aquino was ordered to perform 25 hours of community service.

A three-day suspension was ordered for a civilian MPD employee who refused an ordered callback shift in 2019, police reported. The suspension wasn’t imposed because the employee no longer works at MPD.

A one-day suspension was imposed on another civilian employee who “accessed private phone recordings without authorization to do so,” according to the report.

The names of civilian employees weren’t included in the report.

A two-day suspension was imposed on officer Mitchell Navarro, who “got intoxicated while off duty and became belligerent at a food establishment” last year, according to the report.

Sgt. Justin Mauliola also was suspended for two days after he “abandoned” his post and left the district without authorization last year, police said.

Three officers — Alvin Ota, Kunal Chopra and Martin Marfil — were suspended for one day each after being found at fault in motor vehicle accidents, Ota in 2018 and Chopra and Marfil in 2020.

MPD reported having 447 Tasers and 29 deployments of Tasers last year.