HILO — While 93 moviegoers were watching “Manchester By the Sea” Friday night at the Palace Theater in Downtown Hilo, a couple of theater staffers witnessed another spectacle in the lobby.
According to court documents filed by police, 34-year-old Brian George Upham, a Hilo man with no permanent address, urinated on the lobby floor in plain view of two female employees. Police say the incident occurred at 8:38 p.m.
“The movie had started, so I don’t think any patrons actually saw what happened,” Morgen Bahurinsky, the Palace’s executive director, said Tuesday.
Upham, who according to the document was “highly intoxicated,” was arrested and charged with open lewdness and disorderly conduct. He pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges Monday.
Deputy Prosecutor Glenn Shiigi asked Hilo District Judge Peter Bresciani to sentence Upham to 60 days “given the fact that this is Mr. Upham’s second open lewdness conviction and his fifth disorderly conduct conviction.”
He also noted Upham was on supervised release because of a habitual property crime charge.
“Somebody’s got to clean that up,” Shiigi told the judge. “There’s a health hazard and a slip-and-fall hazard caused by him urinating on that lobby floor.”
Deputy Pubic Defender Austin Hsu asked Bresciani to sentence Upham to 20 days, minus the four days he’d already spent in jail.
“Although he did make a mistake, he is currently trying to work on his mental health and substance abuse issues,” Hsu said.
Upham told the judge he was “deeply embarrassed,” and Bresciani replied Upham should have felt that way “a long time ago.”
“I see some of these open lewdness cases, and I think somebody urinates in the park and somebody sees them and they come here, and I think, ‘Why are you bothering this person?’” the judge said. “When I hear you go into the lobby of the theater and do this, it’s, like, so rude to other people. Right?”
Bresciani gave Upham the option of 30 days of consecutive jail time or 60 days served intermittently so he could attend court-ordered classes, which Upham takes Monday through Thursday. Upham chose the latter.
“I want him to go to jail Thursday after classes,” the judge said. “No sense in him waiting until Friday. He can go there Thursday night and beat the weekend rush.”
Bahurinsky said she and her employees have had to clean urine and feces from homeless congregating outside the Palace before, but this is the first time they’ve been confronted with the issue inside the building.
“The problem has really, really escalated it seems, in the last six months, I’d say, from losing the mission on Keawe Street around the corner (Under His Wings Ministry),” she said. “They kept a certain amount of control over people because the people who went there for food and showers, they told them, ‘You don’t get these things unless you respect us and our neighbors.’ It’s kind of sad.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.