HONOLULU — A retired Honolulu police sergeant was charged with misdemeanor sex assault after a woman reported that he made unwanted advances while he oversaw her driver’s license road test, officials said.
Corbett Roy was arrested this week on three counts of fourth-degree sex assault and one count of harassment, according to police records.
He was released on $1,000 bail. He didn’t immediately return a message left Friday at a possible phone number for him. It’s not clear if he has an attorney.
Roy, 59, retired in 2011 as a police sergeant after 31 years with the Honolulu Police Department, spokeswoman Michelle Yu said. He volunteered as a reserve officer from 2012 to 2015, she said.
Roy gave a road test to the woman who later complained, said Sheri Kajiwara, director of Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services, which oversees the city’s driver’s licensing operations.
The woman passed the test and then reported to a clerk what happened in the car, Kajiwara said.
“She did say he had made some unwanted advances toward her,” Kajiwara said.
A manager encouraged the woman to file a police report, but she declined at that time, Kajiwara said. The woman also declined to provide a written statement before leaving the Koolau Driver Licensing Center in Kaneohe.
By then, Roy had also left, Kajiwara said.
“We did launch our own investigation internally,” Kajiwara said. When Roy came in the next day, he denied the allegations, she said, and officials decided not to have him administer tests that day.
Roy was on a three-month contract with the city for help with the busy summer season and his contract was set to end Friday, Kajiwara said.
She said it’s a common job for police retirees because they are familiar with traffic laws.
Road test examiners must undergo a criminal background check and Roy’s came back clear, Kajiwara said.
“It has me very concerned,” she said of the allegations. “I feel devastated because we take customer service as an extremely important component of what we do. We hold an allegation like this as extremely serious.”
She said this is the first time there has been such an allegation against a road test examiner. The allegations have prompted the department to review procedures, she said.
“I’d just like to say that I’m sorry she was made to feel uncomfortable,” Kajiwara said. “We will work with police to make sure that we get to the truth.”