A lawsuit against a quartet of Honolulu police officers over a late-night apartment search may go to trial.
Anthony Bellamy was sleeping in his apartment in the early morning of May 8, 2020 when he was awakened by a knock on the door. Behind the door were a quartet of armed police officers.
The officers had been called in by Bellamy’s upstairs neighbor, who had reported in a 911 call, and then to the officers directly, that she had heard a noise like a gunshot, and the smell of gunpowder, somewhere beneath her.
The police interaction with Bellamy was brief. Body camera footage indicated that officers knocked on Bellamy’s door at about 3:35 a.m. and the team departed shortly after 3:36 a.m. No gun was ever found, and the officers speculated among themselves that the caller may have only heard a car backfiring.
But Bellamy would sue the City and County of Honolulu, as well as the four police officers — Nickolas Hirata, Dylan Torres, Byron Marfil and Diana Miranda — over what he characterized a disturbing and threatening situation.
Bellamy claimed in his lawsuit that, when he opened his apartment door, Hirata had an AR-15 rifle “pointed right at” him.
"At least two officers told me to put my hands up,” Bellamy stated in the suit. “I put one of my hands up and the officers demanded I put both hands up. I had to open the door to show both my hands. The officers kept asking me 'where's the guns, where's the guns'.”
Bellamy, a Black man who was in his 60s at the time of the incident, said he felt threatened by the officers into letting them into his apartment, despite the officers’ lack of a warrant. His suit also noted that, during the police interaction, his neighbor, an Asian American woman, emerged from her apartment to ask what was going on, but police did not question her or ask to search her apartment.
However, HPD provided to the First Circuit Court recordings of the initial 911 call and bodycam recordings from all four of the officers. According to a court summary of the footage, Hirata never raised his rifle above the “low ready” position — with the barrel pointed at the ground — nor raised his voice. The officers only entered the apartment after Bellamy told them “you can come check everything in here,” and Hirata apologized for the disturbance after a quick search.
Bellamy’s suit alleged that the officers had threatened assault, invaded his privacy and intentionally inflicted emotional distress, and called for punitive damages against the City.
The fact that the camera footage seems to directly contradict Bellamy’s testimony led the First Circuit Court to issue a summary judgment in favor of the City and the officers. But the state Intermediate Court of Appeals determined on Monday that was the wrong decision.
The ICA ruling found that Bellamy’s version of events — in which a rifle was pointed at him, officers shouted at him and he did not consent to a search of his apartment — need not be corroborated by other evidence in order to be admissible in court as an affidavit.
“The jury must decide which version of events it believes; it is not for a judge, on a motion for summary judgment, to weigh competing evidence and determine which version of events should be accepted as true,” read the ICA opinion by presiding judge Keith Hiroaka.
Part of reason for this verdict comes from the lingering impacts of the encounter Bellamy claims to have experienced: he said he has suffered from anxiety, PTSD and paranoia since the incident. Because of this, even if the bodycam footage shows no indication of actually threatening behavior, Hiroaka wrote that Bellamy’s affidavit still raised questions of HPD’s potential liability for emotional damages.
Despite this, the ICA opinion did not reverse the Circuit Court’s dismissal of Bellamy’s claim for punitive damages against the City and County.
With the ICA’s opinion, the case is remanded back to the Circuit Court for further proceedings, which have not yet been scheduled.
HPD confirmed to Aloha State Daily that all four officers remain with the department.
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