Suit alleges former MPD officer was ‘kidnapped and interrogated’

Officer says he was questioned about surveillance video of former chief hitting motorcycle at mall

WAILUKU -- A lawsuit alleges a former Maui Police Department officer was "kidnapped and interrogated" by two police officers investigating the release of a surveillance video showing then-Police Chief Tivoli Faaumu backing his truck into a parked motorcycle, then driving away two years ago.

The complaint was filed Nov. 4 in 2nd Circuit Court on behalf of Manuel Sorcy, now a Hawaii Police Department officer.

He and a rookie officer responded to investigate a report of a motor vehicle collision Nov. 7, 2020, in a parking structure at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center. After a supervisor was informed that Faaumu was possibly involved, the officers were told to document a civil motor vehicle accident but not to initiate a case for "duty upon striking unattended vehicle," according to the complaint.

Later, a copy of the mall security surveillance video was posted online and aired in television news reports.

In addition to Faaumu and MPD, the complaint names a police officer and a police sergeant as defendants.

Asked if MPD wanted to comment, spokeswoman Alana Pico said by email Tuesday "the department will not be issuing a statement."

The officer and sergeant did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Faaumu said he didn't realize he had hit the motorcycle until he was called by a police lieutenant.

Reached by telephone this week, Faaumu recalled that the Criminal Intelligence Unit officers were assigned to investigate an anonymous letter he received Nov. 16, 2020, that said a copy of the surveillance video would be sent to media. The letter also said that if he didn't retire by the end of the year, a letter would be sent to the Maui County Council, Police Commission, mayor, State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers and media outlets calling for an investigation into Faaumu's behavior toward employees.

Once the officers were assigned to investigate the letter, "I do not direct the investigation," Faaumu said.

Later, he said he was told what the officers discovered.

When the officers reviewed the police report about the accident, they learned the video hadn't been submitted as evidence, Faaumu said. He was told that mall security reported giving the only copy of the video to a police officer before the CIU officers questioned Sorcy and the rookie about what happened to the video.

The CIU officers reported "they met with them, they went for a ride, just talk story," Faaumu said. "That's what they told me. They needed to find out what happened to the video."

According to the complaint, Sorcy was with his family on his day off Nov. 25, 2020, when he received a message on his cellphone from the CIU officer, according to the complaint. When Sorcy called back, he was told to meet the officer at the University of Hawaii Maui College parking lot in Kahului.

There, the sergeant was in the driver's seat and the officer was in the front passenger seat of an unmarked police vehicle when, through the tinted window, the officer pointed to the seat behind him for Sorcy to get into the back seat, the complaint says.

At the time, the officer and sergeant were assigned to the Criminal Intelligence Unit that "only works for the chief," according to the complaint.

Sorcy reported that the officer confirmed the two wanted to talk about Faaumu's collision before they drove out of the parking lot.

Sorcy described being questioned as he was driven throughout Central Maui, then on Kuihelani Highway and streets in Kahului. The vehicle also traveled through Happy Valley on Market Street, then passed Waihee School and pulled off the road into the middle of a dirt lot surrounded by cane grass, according to the complaint.

Sorcy felt the interrogation was being done with the officer as "good cop" and the sergeant as "bad cop" who "sat there silently with a more aggressive and intimidating expression and demeanor," according to the complaint.

The officers asked Sorcy, "Who outside of patrol came down and asked for the video?" the complaint says. Sorcy responded that no one asked for the video because no one other than patrol officers knew he had obtained a copy to verify that a glitch on the recording was on the actual footage, according to the complaint.

He reported also being asked why a case wasn't made for the charge of duty upon striking a motor vehicle so Faaumu would have given a statement and the case would go to court. Because that wasn't done, "it made the chief look stupid," Sorcy reported being told.

He also reported being told that supervisors didn't make the duty upon striking case because they saw the collision as an opportunity to make Faaumu "look bad" and because "the titans upstairs are fighting," according to the complaint.

Sorcy recalled he was asked if he had children and mention was made of a former MPD officer who went to federal prison for a civil rights violation.

The vehicle was parked in the "far and remote" dirt lot when Sorcy said he realized he had left his cellphone in his personal vehicle in the college parking lot.

He "was very scared, felt cornered and trapped like a prisoner," according to the complaint.

Sorcy was told one phone call could sabotage his chances to transfer to the police department on Hawaii island before he was driven back toward Kahului and returned to his vehicle, the complaint says.

It says Sorcy wasn't advised of his constitutional rights and wasn't asked to waive them "yet he was kidnapped and interrogated for approximately two hours."

Afterward, he avoided going to the Wailuku Police Station during business hours so he wouldn't run into anyone from the chief's office, according to the complaint. He also worried about his family, worried about being sued, fired or arrested and suffered severe anxiety, the complaint says.

In January 2021, after Sorcy reported being mistreated to MPD's Internal Affairs section, the officer and sergeant remained in their jobs with police powers, according to the complaint.

On Nov. 1, 2021, Sorcy transferred to the Hawaii Police Department.

Honolulu attorney Joseph Rosenbaum of Fujiwara and Rosenbaum, LLLC filed the complaint, which seeks unspecified special, compensatory and punitive damages.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.