25 officers appear before grand jury in cockfight case
As many as 25 Honolulu police officers testified before a federal grand jury as part of an FBI investigation into whether five officers were involved in illegal cockfighting operations, according to a source close to the investigation.
The officers who testified were mostly from District 2 (North Shore and Central Oahu), according to the source.
There was more than one day of testimony before the grand jury, the last one being Thursday, the source said.
Neither the FBI nor Honolulu police would confirm that the hearings had taken place.
It was almost a year ago that federal agents began investigating police officers who were thought to be involved in illegal cockfighting operations on the North Shore and Windward Oahu.
As part of the investigation, FBI agents raided the homes of the five officers and a relative of one of the officers on March 31 and April 6, 2005.
The officers under investigation include a 28-year veteran who had been assigned to the Criminal Intelligence Unit before he retired last September. The other officers are a 22-year veteran sergeant with the gambling detail; two members of the District 4 (Windward Oahu) Crime Reduction Unit -- a six-year and a 20-year veteran; and a 20-year veteran District 2 (Wahiawa-North Shore) patrol sergeant.
When the FBI probe began, HPD placed all of the officers on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Police union officials said that as of January the nine-month total for paying officers not to work was estimated at about $250,000. Since then, the union estimates that each of the remaining four officers have cost the department about $20,000 each month they remain on leave.