Four Honolulu police officers charged in connection with an alleged September 2021 car chase, crash and cover-up entered pleas of not guilty this morning before Circuit Court Judge Christine E.Kuriyama.
Officer Joshua J.S. Nahulu, 37, is charged with collisions involving death or serious bodily injury for allegedly causing the crash near the corner of Farrington Highway and Orange Street that left the driver of a white 2000 four-door Honda Civic with a traumatic brain injury.
Nahulu faces a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Officers Erik X.K. Smith, 25, Jake R.T. Bartolome, 35, and Robert G. Lewis III were charged with hindering prosecution in the first degree, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Smith, Bartolome and Lewis were also charged with conspiracy to commit hindering prosecution in the first degree, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
At about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 12, 2021, Nahulu, Smith, Bartolome and Lewis were dispatched to a noise complaint about a party in Maili Beach Park, according to the felony information and non-felony complaint filed March 16. The Honda drove out of the parking lot, and Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome allegedly followed in an unannounced pursuit.
Nahulu was allegedly “nearest the sedan when it left the highway and crashed onto private property” at about 3:45 a.m., injuring all six occupants, some critically, when they were ejected from the Civic after it crashed through a yard and over a concrete wall.
Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome allegedly drove past the scene of the crash, then pretended to know nothing about it when a police dispatcher sent them back to the scene. The three officers allegedly met up in the driveway of Waianae Intermediate School before the 911 dispatcher sent them to the scene of the crash, according to the complaint.
Body-worn camera footage from Smith, Bartolome and Lewis responding to the crash scene allegedly shows them acting as if they had “no prior knowledge of the facts that gave rise to the collision.”
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