Man awarded $12.5M from city charged in gun, drug case

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A 38-year-old man allegedly disabled and after he sued the city following a traumatic brain injury resulting from a police pursuit was charged Monday in connection with a shooting in Kapolei.

On Saturday at about

1:13 p.m., Jonaven Perkins-­Sinapati, a convicted felon with more than 40 state arrests and citations, allegedly fired a gun in a residential area near Ewa Makai Middle School.

He was arrested at 91-5431 Kapolei Parkway. Perkins-­Sinapati is being prosecuted by the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney's career criminal division.

No one was hurt in the shooting, and police allegedly found ammunition and methamphetamine on Perkins-Sinapati.

He was charged Tuesday with place to keep pistol

or revolver, possession of prohibited detachable magazine, ownership, two counts of possession or control prohibited of any firearm or ammunition by a person convicted of certain crimes, promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree and second-degree reckless endangering.

He is being held in lieu

of $750,000 bail. Perkins-­Sinapati is scheduled to appear for arraignment and a plea hearing on Monday at

8:30 a.m. before Oahu Circuit Court Judge Ronald G. Johnson.

Perkins-Sinapati faces enhanced penalties if convicted as he has prior felony convictions for car theft, robbery and promotion of a dangerous drug.

The city agreed to pay $12.5 million to Perkins-­Sinapati, the driver of a car that crashed in September 2021 in Makaha during a pursuit by who allegedly left the scene only to return and act as if nothing happened.

His attorney in the civil case, Michael Green, previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Perkins-­Sinapati would never work again and could not participate in physical activities with his kids.

Perkins-Sinapati allegedly "has little use of his left arm and hand."

He "struggles to speak clearly and displays behavior that is comparable to stroke victims" who lose partial or total control of critical functions, Green

previously told the Star-­Advertiser.

Green told the Star-­Advertiser on Tuesday that "none of Jonaven's injuries were ever fake."

"All of the testing he received by the City's expert corroborated the deficits he has sustained regarding the speech, the use of his left arm, his ability to ambulate. This was not a drive-by shooting. There was no

one shot at," said Green.

"I would call his stroke not severe, but certainly a stroke that the experts say will cause him to need long term care for the rest of his life. But the City through line and verse verified and checked with their expert that the injuries were real and paid accordingly."

Ian Scheuring, Mayor Rick Blangiardi's deputy communications director, told the Star-Advertiser in a statement that the city "engaged in extensive discovery to evaluate Mr. Perkins-­Sinapati's claims arising from the injuries he sustained from the accident and settled the case based upon evidence the City

substantiated."

Seven officers have been disciplined by the department in connection with the Sept. 12, 2021, incident, originally described to the public as a single-car accident.

Three Honolulu police officers have been fired, and they, along with a fourth officer, go to trial in June on state criminal charges.