Honolulu will pay nearly $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit from a father and son who say police beat and restrained them after mistaking the son for an armed suspect during a nine-hour manhunt on New Year's Day 2024. The Honolulu City Council approved the settlement on Oct. 7.
According to Hawaii News Now, Tevita Cadiente, then 25, and his father, Vaokehekehe Mataele, then 49, sued the City and County of Honolulu and several unnamed Honolulu Police Department officers, alleging they were innocent bystanders on University Avenue when officers swarmed them during the chase for suspect Sidney Tafokitau. The lawsuit claimed officers used physical force on both men, reportedly about 300 yards from where the manhunt was unfolding.
A federal complaint described in reporting from Yahoo News says a police van climbed a curb and ran Cadiente into a chain-link fence, and that roughly 10 to 12 officers then struck him with their hands and the blunt ends of their weapons. Mataele, the lawsuit alleged, was held down, handcuffed and had his head forced onto the pavement, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Mistaken Identity During a Deadly Manhunt
Officers mistook Cadiente for Tafokitau, the man they were actually chasing, per Honolulu Civil Beat. The manhunt that day ended in a shootout in which Tafokitau wounded two police officers before he was shot and killed at the scene, the Star-Advertiser reported separately.
City prosecutor Steve Alm later announced that the officers involved would not face criminal charges, saying their use of force was justified, the Star-Advertiser reported. That decision resolved the criminal question even as the civil lawsuit from Cadiente and Mataele continued toward the settlement now approved by the council.
A Pattern of Costly Payouts
The settlement adds to a long list of expensive police-related payouts in Honolulu. A 2022 Civil Beat analysis found the city had spent more than $18 million settling police-related lawsuits and misconduct claims over the prior decade, with 48 claims pending against the department at the time of that report.
By 2024, the city's police-related legal costs had climbed further. Civil Beat reported Honolulu paid $17.3 million in settlements, judgments and claims in one fiscal year alone, up from $11.9 million the year before and $7.7 million the year before that. The same report noted the city's per-claim payment obligation before insurance coverage rose from $2 million in fiscal year 2019 to $10 million in fiscal year 2022, and that city attorneys estimated $20 million would be needed for civil litigation and claims in the following fiscal year.
Other recent cases illustrate the scale of those costs. Honolulu agreed to $15 million in settlements tied to a deadly 2019 police pursuit, and approved a $12.5 million settlement for the driver injured in a 2021 Makaha police chase crash along with $4.5 million for four passengers in that same vehicle, according to Civil Beat. The city also approved a $1 million settlement with the family of Iremamber Sykap, who was shot and killed by Honolulu police in April 2021, as reported by KHON2.
The exact dollar figure in the Cadiente-Mataele case is not entirely settled in public reporting. Hawaii News Now described the payment as nearly $2 million, while a separate Civil Beat item referenced a $1.8 million figure.
