KAUAI MAYOR SEEKS FEDERAL PROBE IN POLICE CORRUPTION CASE

LIHUE (AP) -- Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste said he will ask the U.S.
Attorney's Office and the FBI to investigate allegations of corruption in
the Kauai Police Department.

''We have a duty to seek the truth for our citizens, and we take these
allegations seriously,'' Baptiste said in a statement Saturday.

But the Police Department has ''fine men and women'' who are dedicated
professionals, he said.

Baptiste acted in response to a federal court lawsuit filed last week by
police officer Mark Begley against the county, Chief George Freitas, a
lieutenant and a man who is not an officer.

Begley alleged that the lieutenant and other officers are members of a
criminal organization involved in drug trafficking. He accused Freitas of
failing to investigate the allegations.

Allegations include that the lieutenant is a member of a criminal
organization that includes both officers and civilians. According to the
lawsuit, members of the organization seize narcotics from drug dealers but
do not make arrests or turn the drugs in as evidence in criminal cases.

In one incident, an officer twice went to Kapaa High School and was given
narcotics taken from students by school administrators, but no police
reports were filed by the officer and the drugs were not turned in as
evidence, the complaint said.

Begley alleged that the lieutenant assaulted him, hitting him on the head so
hard that he had to be air-evacuated to an Oahu hospital for treatment for
brain damage that has left him disabled.

The lawsuit also says that a woman drug informant complained that drugs she
obtained in ''controlled buys'' were kept by the lieutenant and that arrests
were never made.

It also claims that the same woman was raped by a relative of the lieutenant
who told her the rape was a warning to keep her mouth shut about the
lieutenant's activities.