Former Maui police officer Carlos Frate is scheduled to stand trial before a jury in U.S. District Court in Honolulu on March 25.

He is charged with depriving someone of their civil rights by tasing a man without legal justification and then falsifying the police report.

Frate, 40, of Kihei pleaded not guilty to the two-count indictment on Jan. 22. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison on the deprivation of civil rights charge and up to 20 years on the false reporting charge.

The charges stem from a disorderly conduct incident on Jan. 6, 2024, according to the Maui Police Department, which has since terminated Frate’s employment with the department.

Frate was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 16.

According to an incident report filed by Frate, after exiting his police car, he saw a person who is referred to as “M.P.” take a “fighting stance as (M.P.) clenched his fists next to his body.”

The U.S. attorney’s office said that in Frate’s report, he wrote that he “ordered M.P. to get on the ground” before first tasing M.P. and that M.P. “continued standing in a fighting stance,” after which Frate “then drew (his) Taser7 and deployed a set.”

However, Frate allegedly omitted that M.P. had complied with his direction to get on the ground before Frate tased him again.

“The narrative that Frate wrote was false because, as Frate then well knew, M.P. ‘s hands were open and M.P. was not in a fighting stance when Frate initially approached M.P.,” according to charges filed by the U.S. attorney’s office.

The U.S. attorney further alleges that Frate drew his taser and fired without having first ordered M.P. to get on the ground and that Frate deployed his taser without M.P. having taken a “fighting stance.”

Frate deployed his taser a second time after M.P. had already cooperated, gotten on the ground, and raised his hands in surrender, the U.S. attorney charged.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the Maui Police Department made the initial referral to federal authorities, and the charges resulted from an investigation by the FBI and Maui Police Department.