BYE BYE BLUE, YOU BAD DOG YOU

BYE BYE BLUE, YOU BAD DOG YOU: On September 16, 1995 they held a little party at Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) headquarters that spurred 13 years of headlines and a slew of lawsuits, scandals and racial slurs, resulting in machination that haunt not just the department but all of Kaua`i politics today.

Many have heard all sorts of stories, yarns, rumors and spin as to the “KPD Follies”, then and since. But a new book by retired Kaua`i Bureau Chief for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, newspaper reporter Anthony Sommer, promises to expose the true story of two police chiefs, two mayors, a handful of police commissioners, more than a dozen plaintiffs, twice as many defendants and a host of other assorted and sordid characters of questionable character.

“KPD Blue” is due out in early September and promises to document the real stories of, not just “The Lap Dancer” incident but the resulting political witch-hunt which cost two police chiefs their jobs and led to the political rise of Councilman, Mayoral candidate and former KPD Sgt. Mel Rapozo.

We’re honored to be able to present excerpts from Sommer’s book subtitled “A Decade Of Racism, Sexism And Political Corruption In (And All Around) The Kauai Police Department”.

Starting tomorrow Parx News Net will debut the first two chapters., “The Lap Dancer” and “KPD’s Finest”, with others to come in the near future.

In tomorrow’s excerpt we first meet “Tail Gunner Mel”, as the title of Chapter 22 refers to him.

Rapozo was not just in the room in uniform the entire time but was “smiling, laughing and making comments and doing nothing to stop” Officer Randy Machado who was busy molesting Monica Alves after she was arrested for prostitution,

Sommer is certainly an authority on corruption in Kaua`i government after covering Kaua`i politics for both The Garden Island and The Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspapers. He returned to Arizona when his reporting led to trumped up terroristic threatening charges from Kaua`i county officials.

That led to his wrongful termination by- and subsequent handsome settlement from- the Star Bulletin.

The charges, which were laughed out of the prosecutor’s office, came when Sommer “threatened” Deputy County Attorney Carmen Wong with publication of another of his news stories exposing county council and other county government malpractice, malfeasance and sleaze.

Wong then claimed she was physically threatened and she and other Kaua`i officials complained to Sommer’s editor Frank Bridgewater causing Sommer’s illegal firing..

While Wong herself has disappeared from the public eye her name has become a verb used to this day to describe the process by which county officials use their position to intimidate whistle-blowers and critics. The ploy is now known among political insiders as being “Carmen Wonged”

Look for the first two chapters of KPD Blue in this space tomorrow more excerpts in the near future at Parx News Net’s ”got windmills?”