Maui police chief’s lawyer asks commission not to investigate allegations; county says fair probe needed for public trust

Bank statements, time-stamped text messages and signed statements from retired Las Vegas lieutenants are among the pieces of evidence that Maui Police Chief John Pelletier has amassed in his defense ahead of Wednesday’s pivotal Police Commission meeting.

Pelletier has been accused in a civil lawsuit of being involved in the conspiracy of a gang rape orchestrated by rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs in California in 2018. At the time Pelletier was working for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The nine members of the volunteer commission must now decide whether to place the chief on administrative leave and launch an investigation into the allegations as requested by Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen, a former longtime judge.

Bissen said last week, shortly after learning about the lawsuit, that while the allegations remained unproven, they were “serious in nature” and that putting Pelletier on leave during the investigation would help protect both the integrity of the department and public trust. And, even with some of Pelletier’s recently presented evidence, Bissen has not changed his mind.

“The widespread media attention surrounding this issue underscores the urgent need for action,” Maui County spokesperson Laksmi Abraham said in a statement on Monday. “This matter is too serious to be influenced by public debate.

“To protect public trust and ensure a fair, independent review, Mayor Bissen stands firmly behind his recommendation that the Police Commission place Chief Pelletier on leave to allow for an impartial investigation into the allegations.”

Pelletier is accused of posing as a Contra Costa sheriff and waving away local law enforcement who responded to the scene of the alleged crime in Orinda, Calif., on March 23, 2018. The lead plaintiff, Ashley Parham, says she reported the rape to Pelletier and that he did not offer to call emergency services, take her to a hospital or retrieve her belongings. Two other plaintiffs, John and Jane Doe, say Pelletier took them at gunpoint from Vegas to California, where they say Combs tried to frame them for the rape.

On Monday, Pelletier’s attorney Keola Whittaker presented evidence in a letter to the commission that he said showed his client was innocent, including: a bank statement showing debit card charges in Vegas March 22-24, 2018; a receipt from 24 Hour Fitness in Vegas on March 23, 2018 with Pelletier’s signature; time-stamped text messages with other Vegas officers indicating he was on call on The Strip March 23-24, 2018; signed statements from two retired lieutenants and his former administrative assistant attesting he was on call those days; an out-of-office message confirming he was on vacation March 25-28, 2018; and a letter from the police union chair saying he had evidence that proved Pelletier was on call, though he did not specify what that evidence was.

Whittaker, a former county attorney who is now with Cades Schutte LLP, asked the commission not to launch an investigation or disciplinary actions against the chief.

“Initiating a proceeding against Chief Pelletier based on wild and disproven allegations in an unserved civil complaint filed in another jurisdiction would be arbitrary, capricious and entirely unfair,” Whittaker said. “It would also set a troubling precedent whereby any official could be subjected to disciplinary proceeding without any supporting evidence.”

Discussion and a decision on Bissen’s request about Pelletier is the first item on the agenda on Wednesday. Public testimony will take place first, then the commission is expected to go into a private executive session for the discussion, as county boards often do when considering personnel moves, and then return to open session to vote, according to Moniz. 

Moniz said via text on Friday that “as chair of the police commission I’m not able to speak for the commission which really is the beauty of being part of a board — no one acts alone, our decisions come as a group.”

But she added: “We will very likely make a statement after our meeting on Wednesday. I strongly believe in the value of the process and trust in the wisdom of the group of commissioners as well as the process of our laws.” 

When asked about Pelletier’s release of bank statements to the media last week, Ariel Mitchell, attorney for the plaintiffs, said via email: “We are not trying this case in the court of public opinion we are trying it in a court of law.”

It’s a pivotal moment in Pelletier’s four-year tenure on Maui, which began in 2021 when the former Las Vegas police captain unanimously won the job over several local high-ranking police officials.

His legacy since then is complicated. Current and retired officers have complained of falling standards, low morale and fear of retaliation since he’s been on the job. But the community members who sit on the panels that work with police have given him stellar reviews and praised his commitment to change. 

The Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative made multiple requests for an interview with the chief last week, but Maui Police Department spokesperson Alana Pico said he “is currently dealing with pressing matters right now.”

INTERNAL CONFLICT

For the commission that chose him and the people who lobbied for his selection, Pelletier’s role as an outsider was exactly what they were looking for at the time.

Pelletier, a 22-year veteran of the Las Vegas police department, was one of five finalists and the only non-Maui resident in the final pool of candidates to replace former Chief Tivoli Faaumu, who retired in May 2021. The other top candidates included two current assistant chiefs, one retired assistant chief and a captain, all of whom had at least 30 years of experience with the Maui Police Department. 

At the time, a group of community members was pushing for a chief from outside the department, concerned in part by MPD’s handling of an investigation into a hit-and-run by Faaumu, which was caught on mall security footage and later leaked to the media.

One detective claimed that the patrolman who responded to the incident was taken to a rural area and interrogated about the video leak and that no action was taken against the officers who questioned him. 

“There was a groundswell of community, people who lobbied the Police Commission to choose John Pelletier as the chief because of the fact that there were the headlines before he arrived,” Chuck Spence, the co-chair of the Multi-Cultural Advisory Counsel created by Pelletier, told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative. 

In October 2021, after a monthslong selection process, the commission voted 9-0 in favor of Pelletier and waived a one-year state residency requirement for the job. Moniz, a commissioner who later would become the chair, said at the time that she “was a little bit hesitant to hire an off-island candidate.” 

“I’ve been responsible for hiring people over the last 20 years, and it doesn’t often work out well,” Moniz said during the vote. “However, having said that, I feel like his answers were very on point. He had done his homework. He was prepared.”

Over half the commission that unanimously selected Pelletier is now gone — the only remaining members from that time are then-Chairman Frank De Rego Jr. and commissioners Janet Kuwahara, Travis Tancayo and Moniz. 

Pelletier was sworn in December 2021 alongside Deputy Chief Charles Hank III, a former Las Vegas colleague that he’d handpicked for the role after also waiving the one-year residency requirement for him. 

Shortly after Pelletier and Hank took over, officer frustrations began to surface. Three veteran high-ranking officers retired in February and March 2022 following disagreements with the chief and worries over falling standards under Pelletier’s changes, including shortening the length of the police recruit academy.

“The people of Maui County deserve better from this department and this chief and deputy,” outgoing Lt. William Hankins told The Maui News at the time.

A survey released in June 2022 by the State of Hawai‘i Organization of Police Officers indicated that discontent was also swirling among the rank-and-file officers. More than a third of the 158 respondents said they were considering leaving MPD within the next two years, and 62% gave Pelletier a negative rating on the leadership quality of “fostering strong morale.” 

Nick Krau, the head of SHOPO’s Maui Chapter, worried that the low morale would worsen the staffing crisis for a department that was already short by more than 100 officers. 

“These results should be a wake-up call to elected officials, the Police Commission and the chief that the time to act is now if we are to preserve our crime-fighting capabilities,” Krau said when the survey was released. 

Pelletier said at the time that the survey, which was conducted in April 2022 after he’d been on the job for four months, was “premature” and that organizational change could take several years. 

But that wasn’t the end of officers’ concerns. In August 2022, the Police Commission reviewed complaints against Pelletier, Hank and executive staff members that alleged hostility and harassment. MPD employees said he yelled and swore during meetings and threatened to “fillet the first one” who was insubordinate. Investigators found the chief likely violated policy but couldn’t substantiate all of the allegations, and ultimately, the commission decided not to discipline the chief. 

In November 2022, Pelletier lost his righthand man when Hank retired after just 10 months on the job. MPD did not give a reason for Hank’s departure, but Pico said at the time that it was not related to employee complaints. Wade Maeda, a captain and 25-year veteran of the department, was chosen as deputy chief.

In January 2023, a few months after the commission declined to take action against the chief, three female Maui police employees pursued their claims in court, filing a lawsuit against the department that alleged gender discrimination and a hostile work environment. They said Pelletier and Hank retaliated against them after they filed complaints, including taking away their job duties. 

The employees’ attorney, Joseph Rosenbaum, did not respond to multiple requests for comment last week. Court records show a trial is scheduled for June. 

SHOPO declined to comment on Pelletier’s tenure so far but backed the mayor’s calls for Pelletier to be put on leave. 

“When an officer is accused of serious misconduct, just like any private citizen, they have a right to due process, which includes a thorough and objective investigation into the allegations,” Krau said in a statement. “It is critical that the Maui Police Department’s top officer be treated the same way any patrol officer under his command is treated.

“This is critical in fostering public trust in law enforcement through transparency and accountability. I believe the intentions behind Mayor Bissen’s measured request to swiftly address the allegations that have attracted national attention are firmly grounded in his desire to do what’s best for the Maui Police Department and the people of Maui.”

OUTWARD SUPPORT

Beyond the turmoil of the department, it’s a different story, especially among the community members chosen to sit on the panel created in January 2022 to bridge the gap between the police force and historically marginalized groups. 

The Multi-Cultural Advisory Counsel included members of MPD and representatives of the LGBTQ+ community, the Black Lives Matter movement, Native Hawaiian cultural experts, and advocates for unsheltered folks, missing persons, domestic violence survivors and incarcerated people. 

Spence, who co-chairs the counsel with Pelletier, described him as “probably one of the best things that’s happened for Maui PD” and believes Pelletier has restored public trust, especially with the LGBTQ+ community he represents. 

“I think it’s understandable that there are many officers who are in line because they had served for so many years and of course feel jilted because of the fact that somebody came in from outside and it thwarted their ability to move up in the ranks the way that they anticipated they would,” Spence said. “But on the other hand, I think we needed to open up the policing here to be more cognizant of modern-day society versus the old-guard of the way that we used to do things.”

When asked how Pelletier’s legacy would be seen in light of conflicting opinions from the public and officers, Spence said, “of course it’s been tumultuous.” 

“I think that bringing in someone from the outside is not an easy feat for any organization, and one that has such a high-profile as the MPD, I think, is even more obvious or visible,” Spence said. “And so with that, I think that it became a lightning rod for any opportunity that people would like to take advantage of to try to discredit this person.”

Keisa Liu, the co-vice-chair of the counsel, said that the group has changed her relationship to police and given her a better understanding of how to talk to them about concerns the community has. She said the chief has demonstrated a willingness to listen, including to her own criticisms. Like Spence, Liu was looking for change and felt Pelletier had a detailed plan and would shake up the “old boy network.”

“With radical change, you’re going to get a lot of disgruntled people just in general, in any organization,” she said.  

Liu said Pelletier’s “intense, driven” personality can be intimidating to many people but that it plays into the speed and intensity of his thought process.

“When I saw the lawsuit and the way it was described of what he was accused of doing, I thought that that was too sloppy for someone at that caliber. He’s much more intelligent than that,” Liu said.

Deb Lynch, who served on the counsel when she was president of A Cup of Cold Water before stepping down in the summer of 2023, said she worked with victim services for over a decade on the Mainland, and after seeing how Pelletier handles things compared to others she’s worked with, “I highly respect him, his decisions and his leadership.”

The Police Commission has also continued to support Pelletier. Last year, based on the chief’s answers to a self-assessment and interview, the commission “concluded unanimously that Mr. Pelletier exceeded expectations” on most of their ratings.

The department, however, did come under public scrutiny and criticism during the August 2023 Lahaina wildfire, when residents said that road closures and police barricades created congestion and trapped them as they tried to escape from the inferno that eventually killed at least 102 people. 

Pelletier defended the department’s actions in the weeks that followed, saying that the closures were to prevent people from driving over downed power lines or going down burning streets. But, he said, “we did not impede people from exiting the area.” 

Last fall, a Hawaii News Now investigation also raised questions over MPD’s handling of the remains of people who died in the fire, with the head of the forensic morgue team hired by MPD saying protocols meant to carefully document the remains were not followed. Pelletier did not respond to questions, and the department later said it had filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint against Hawaii News Now and limited access for the reporter who broke the story.

Attorneys for the news outlet called it “wholly inappropriate for a public, law enforcement agency” and noted that MPD had not pointed to any unsupported or incorrect statement in its reporting nor provided a copy of its apparent complaint. HNN said Tuesday there is still no evidence of a complaint being filed on the commission’s website.

Pelletier’s legacy matters to him — in 2021 when he was selected as a finalist for chief, he told the commission in his written responses to interview questions: “I have made my integrity and reputation a priority and above reproach.” And whether his career is defined more by the internal discontent or outward support could hinge on the commission’s decision Wednesday and any potential investigation that follows.

NOTE: This story contains a correction stating that the Maui Police Department filed a Federal Communications Commission complaint against Hawaii News Now. A previous version of the story inaccurately stated that MPD had sued HNN. The Hawai’i Journalism Initiative apologizes for the error.