HONOLULU — An attorney has made additional claims of misconduct against a prosecutor who shoved him in a courthouse altercation, according to court records.
Lawyer Myles Breiner said Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Emlyn Higa attempted to have a relationship with a witness in two cases he was prosecuting, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday.
Breiner’s filing said Higa also drafted legal documents for the woman’s civil case while he was a Maui deputy prosecutor, visited her home at night while intoxicated, and assaulted her adult son.
Higa denied the claims by the defense attorney and called them “as distressing, confusing and disheartening to me as they are false.”
A judge’s three-year injunction issued Oct. 8 prohibits Higa from contacting, threatening or harassing Breiner after Higa shoved Breiner in Honolulu’s First Circuit Court building Sept. 18.
The order prohibits Higa from visiting Breiner’s home or office, but does not prevent Higa from handling criminal cases involving Breiner’s clients.
The document filed in state Circuit Court Friday is part of Breiner’s attempt to disqualify Higa from prosecuting one of his clients for attempted murder.
Circuit Judge Paul B.K. Wong is the presiding judge in the attempted murder case. Wong heard arguments Sept. 26 on Breiner’s request to disqualify Higa, but has yet to rule.
The woman on which Breiner’s filing is focused was named in a December 2016 Maui Police Department report in which the woman’s son said Higa went to her home at 2:45 a.m. and kicked, punched and choked the son.
No assault charge was filed against Higa. The Maui police said it forwarded the case to the prosecuting attorney’s office, which said it never received the report.