Dozens of Oahu drivers arrested, jailed for DUI despite tests showing no alcohol in their systems

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Over the last two years, dozens of Oahu drivers have been arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence with breathalyzer results of 0.00 — meaning no alcohol showed as present in their system, HNN Investigates has found.

In 2022 and 2023, nearly 300 drivers who were arrested had breath or blood test results below the legal limit of 0.08, according to HPD data on arrests that did not result in charges.

Even more concerning, there were 69 people with results of 0.00.

HNN Investigates

To better understand the situation, HNN obtained body camera videos from two recent cases.

In one of those cases, on January 24, an 18-year old was pulled over on Moanalua Freeway near the stadium just after 10 p.m. Body camera videos show an HPD officer talking to the high school senior who was driving a white pickup truck.

“I pulled you over because you were swerving,” she said.

The driver said he hit the gas on the onramp and his truck’s tires slipped on the wet road.

The officer then told the driver, “Your eyes look a little red and watery.”

She asked him to take a field sobriety test.

He declined and the high school senior was cuffed and taken to the Pearl City substation.

At the station, he agreed to take the breath test and HPD records show, he blew 0.00 — there was no alcohol detected by the breathalyzer. Charges weren’t filed, but the arrest was on record because he was an adult. His parents paid $35 to get the arrest expunged.

“When I was a policeman, I never had anybody blow triple zeros,” said Jonathan Burge, a former HPD officer who is now a defense attorney specializing in traffic cases.

Burge said the department puts pressure on officers to make drunk driving arrests, “especially if you’re in these specialized units, where there is an unwritten quota.”

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Victor Bakke, a former city prosecutor turned defense attorney, said unwritten quotas are a way for the department to gauge success when it comes to programs that get federal funding.

“Otherwise, what are their officers doing out there all night, just sleeping on the side of the road? So there is pressure on them,” Bakke said.

Another attorney specializing in traffic cases, Pat McPherson, said officers will sometimes make an arrest at the beginning of their shift so they don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the night. “They arrest the first person,” McPherson said, then they don’t go back out.

HPD declined requests for interviews.

In a statement, Deputy HPD Chief Keith Horikawa did not use the word quota, but said “supervisors may have goals and standards that are pertinent to their unit to help guide the personnel under their command.” Horikawa said in his statement that “the Traffic Division has conducted additional training in department procedures and operations for its personnel.”

That training happened months after HNN Investigates requested the arrest data from the department for this story — and after a story HNN Investigates aired in December about a man who was arrested despite having no alcohol in his system.

Ammon Fepuleai, 36, was pulled over on Nov. 7, 2023 at a DUI checkpoint on Kamehameha Highway at Ka Uka Boulevard. Body camera video shows the officer told Fepuleai, “I do detect the odor of alcohol.” Fepuleai told the officer that he does not drink at all, and agreed to do the field sobriety tests, including the breath test. Fepuleai blew 0.00 at the scene.

The officer used the smell of alcohol as probable cause to get Fepuleai out of the car.

But when the breath test showed no alcohol in his system, the officer arrested him anyway, saying he suspected drug use instead.

Legal experts said the arrest could be seen as a civil rights violation.

“I felt embarrassed. I felt profiled,” Fepuleai said.

HNN Investigates received data from the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office that showed most cases that HPD refers to them are declined. Last year, HPD sent 1,283 cases for prosecution but 1,038 were rejected — that means 80% were declined.

A spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office said the department “will not file charges unless it is confident it can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with admissible evidence.”

McPherson said drivers who are not intoxicated should take the breath test.

“That is your salvation. If you blow triple zeros, we know that you haven’t drank,” he said.

Meanwhile, Burge noted, arresting people who are innocent has another effect.

“The drunk guys are left on the road,” he said.

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