Maui Widow Gets VA to Give Money Back To
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SUNDAY DECEMBER 14, 2008 HAWAI‘I’S NEWSPAPER HOME FINAL $2.00 on O‘ahu | $3.00 on Neighbor Islands []BREAKING NEWS 24/7 AT HONOLULUADVERTISER.COM INSIDE TODAY Read the sad story of Daysha Aiona-Aka, as told through her journals, her The Life and Death of Daysha family and her friends. CROSSING THE LINE • ABUSE IN HAWAI‘I HOMES PART ONE INSIDE Stanford sweeps UH Rainbow Wahine System failure come up short in bid for NCAA Final Four SPORTS | C1 DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS FRUSTRATED BY GAPS IN SAFETY NET BY ROB PEREZ INSIDE Advertiser Staff Writer Watch the • Domestic vio- So many battered women have lost lence data show a faith in Hawaiçi’s criminal justice system mixed picture | A12 that many are not reporting their beat- marathon • A snapshot of the ings and some even say the abuse can be View live streaming law | A15 more tolerable than the trauma of deal- • Domestic abuse ing with unsympathetic people in a gru- video from today’s murders are edg- eling judicial process. 36th Honolulu ing up | A15 “The system that was designed to Marathon at protect us ultimately is failing us,” said ONLINE Dara Carlin, a domestic-violence sur- HONOLULUADVERTISER.COM vivor and advocate. “The atrocities that • Queen of the happen are just disgusting.” PLUS: Map of the Ball: Presentation That lack of faith reflects a process on Daysha Aiona- that is unsatisfying to many victims and marathon’s route Aka’s journal, read their families, even when police catch through town by The Advertiser’s the abusers and prosecutors get con- HAWAIÇI | A31 Lee Cataluna victions — especially if the offenders re- • Multimedia ceive little or no jail time. guide: Test your Many victims also express disgust knowledge on about the civil side of Hawaiçi’s judicial leaving an abusive process, though many women turn to relationship the civil courts to get protective orders • Photo galleries: to try to prevent future abuse. More images on The distrust of the system is not sur- Hawaiçi domestic- prising: abuse cases • News about case outcomes consid- • Domestic vio- lence database: Search details of SEE BROKEN, A12 Hawaiçi murder Sooners’ QB cases linked to inti- mate-partner vio- wins Heisman lence VICTIMS OFTEN • Forum: Join the Oklahoma’s Bradford discussion on solv- RECANT ONCE ing the domestic- edges Texas’ McCoy, abuse problems. IN COURTROOM Florida’s Tebow BY ROB PEREZ SPORTS | C1 Advertiser Staff Writer For a prosecutor, taking a domestic violence case to a jury usually is a dicey THE ADVERTISER’S proposition and often results in an ac- quittal. BLOGS The August trial of Jerome Kealoha • Video: A domes- Jr. was no exception. tic violence forum Not only did the case illustrate the with stakeholders. challenges domestic-abuse prosecutions can present, it underscored how unpre- BROADCAST dictable and volatile such prosecutions can be. Quarterlife The chief challenge in this trial: over- coming the recanting of the key witness, Café • KGMB9 News Kealoha’s girlfriend, who told jurors she video: How does lied when she reported to police a year Kim Fassler blogs about the economy affect earlier that her boyfriend beat her. domestic violence? Also, the police who responded to the Quarterlifers and credit initial domestic-dispute call in July 2007 cards: the perils and took no photographs of Angela Olsen’s in- pluses of plastic. Read Go to HONOLULUADVER TISER.COM/DOMESTIC juries because none of the officers had a her comments and post VIOLENCE for more on JEFF WIDENER | The Honolulu Advertiser camera. That provided an opening for your own at this series. Deputy prosecutor Rom Trader shows photographs of battered women’s injuries that HONOLULUADVERTISER.COM were used as evidence in some of the domestic violence cases his office prosecuted. SEE LEGAL, A14 /BLOGS TO SUBSCRIBE, CALL 538-NEWS 18 sections, 208 pages ★ Cars | G5-8 Maui widow gets VA to Kauaçi slammed by rain, maybe tornado Classifieds | G1-4 Crossword | D2 BY DIANA LEONE Editorials | B2 give money back to all Advertiser Kauaçi Bureau Hawai‘i | A31-40 HANAPEPE, Kauaçi — This west Kauaçi town was blasted yesterday Jobs | H1-6 BY WILL HOOVER Advertiser Staff Writer by high wind that may have been a Movie ads | D7 VA HELP LINE Thanks to an 83-year-old Maui tornado, while the rest of the Gar- Obituaries | A32 woman, tens of thousands of wid- Widows and widowers of den Island got a soaking and numer- Travel | E1-6 ows and widowers of veterans veterans who believe they ous mudslides, downed trees and Weather | A4 will receive millions of dollars were wrongfully denied pay- road closures from high water. in federal benefits wrongfully de- ments can call the VA’s help During the 24-hour period ending © COPYRIGHT, 2008 nied them over the past 12 years. line at 800-827-1000. at 5 p.m., no measured spot on Kauaçi “I was very surprised that I received fewer than 4 inches of rain would have an impact for all and most got 6 or more inches, top- War with the U.S. Army and lost those other women,” Ruby Maile ping at 14 inches on Mount his hearing during the conflict. Sasaoka of Kula said yesterday. “I Waiçaleçale, one of the wettest spots After he died at age 76 in 2007, had no idea they were going REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser on Earth. Sasaoka used her husband’s fi- through the same thing.” Oçahu got rained on as well. City department officials David The National Weather Service’s nal benefit check of $2,669 to pay Her husband, Raymond Fusao Tanoue and Craig Nishimura checked out damage yesterday A GANNETT NEWSPAPER Sasaoka, fought in the Korean SEE VETERANS, A9 morning in Haleçiwa. More weather stories | A3, A31 SEE KAUAÇI, A2 A12 | Sunday, December 14, 2008 The Honolulu Advertiser • CROSSING THE LINE • ABUSE IN HAWAI‘I HOMES Police data don’t tell full story doned the two girls for three Gaps in the domestic weeks last year to make an un- Broken planned trip to Iowa, described violence system her actions as self-centered and have received CONTINUED FROM A1 vindictive and said the husband produced credible evidence that heightened attention ered outrageous quickly spreads she physically and psychologi- in the domestic violence com- cally abused the children. in recent months as munity. In one recent case, a The order, however, did not Hawaiçi struggles to Honolulu judge gave sole cus- address the three main issues, tody of a divorcing couple’s two including sexual molestation, deal with a problem teen daughters to the husband raised by CPS about the husband. that has grabbed even though Child Protective Even if the court deemed the Services recommended against mother unfit to have the girls, headlines because of it, partly because the husband how could a judge justify leaving had sexually molested a teen them with a man with such a a slew of high-profile stepdaughter, court documents checkered past, Carlin and others murders. Statewide, show. asked. • Some criminal prosecutions Additionally, the husband’s nine deaths this year languish because the alleged abuse allegations against the wife have been linked to abusers dodge police or simply never have been confirmed by a can’t be located, and authorities third party, McGivern said in the intimate-partner have an inefficient “penal sum- September court filing. mons” system for finding them. “Sometimes, I just break down violence, including at • In many misdemeanor cases, crying because the system is so least three murder- Honolulu police do not take pho- broken,” said the wife, who asked tos of a victim’s injuries, which not to be named. “If I had known suicides. Police can be key pieces of evidence. then what I know now, maybe I suspect a fourth Without photos, prosecutors say should’ve just put up with the their job of getting convictions is abuse.” murder-suicide tougher. (See sidebar) Hawaiçi’s domestic-violence • So many women have opted problem sometimes is referred occurred last month not to report their beatings that to as a hidden one because so at Ko Olina but are abuse calls to police statewide many cases go unreported, and have plunged 64 percent over the victims, mostly women, suf- awaiting autopsy the past decade — even though fer in silence. They don’t con- results to confirm virtually everyone in the domes- tact authorities for many reasons, tic violence community says including cultural, religious and that. Even though Hawaiçi’s problem is not getting financial ones. any better and some believe it’s But the negative perception of Honolulu is one of getting worse, particularly with Hawaiçi’s criminal and civil jus- the safest major U.S. the economy sputtering and illicit tice system is commonly cited. drugs rampant. And that perception continues cities in terms of But even as the calls to police to spread. violent crimes have plummeted, the number of When a University of Hawaiçi protective orders issued by Fam- assistant professor who is re- overall, the state ily Court in domestic-abuse cas- searching gaps in the domestic- es has surged 80 percent over violence safety net recently asked almost every year the past decade. Some believe service providers about barriers, since 1997 has that trend is a more accurate re- their responses frequently men- flection of Hawaiçi’s domestic vi- tioned the criminal justice sys- topped the national olence problem. tem. average in domestic- Police and prosecutors are un- “You see the frustration build- sure why the abuse calls are ing with women who are trying violence homicides down so dramatically. But dozens to be safe and trying to trust the of victims, their relatives and ad- system,” said Charlene Baker, the per capita, according vocates have told The Advertis- faculty member doing the re- to an Advertiser er that the system is widely per- search.