LIHUE — An Eleele man accused of beating up a young woman several times in the last six months is wanted on a $50,000 warrant after not showing up to his court hearing.
Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Randal Valenciano revoked bail and issued a bench warrant for Akeem Allen, who failed to appear in court Wednesday morning. County prosecutors say Allen has refused to stay away from a 22-year-old Hanapepe woman he is charged with abusing, allegations Allen’s attorney denied during the hearing.
Allen, 33, faces one count of abuse of a family or household member, a class C felony punishable by up to five years in jail. According to a motion to increase or revoke Allen’s bail filed by county prosecutors last week, two eyewitnesses saw Allen “beating up a white girl” at a local sports field on Feb 28.
In the Aug. 26 motion and attached memorandum, Kauai County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Todd Dickenson said one witness watched as a man he recognized as Allen “grabbed the white girl, and threw her onto the ground, and then threw her into the dugout. He could hear the girl screaming and yelling.”
Another man reported that he “observed the male towering over the female, and would pick her up and throw her to the ground,” later choking and slapping the woman, Dickenson wrote in the memo.
“He then finally threw her into the dugout, and all that he could hear was screaming or yelling,” the second witness reportedly told authorities, adding that “he has been around a long time, and has seen a lot, but this made his stomach turn.”
The memo said the incident was also reported by a 911 caller who told the operator a man she knew as Allen was pushing, choking and “beating the hell outta” a woman she described as “a local-looking girl,” who kept telling Allen she didn’t want to be with him anymore.
Allen was arrested on March 14 in connection with the incident and released from police custody six days later on the condition that he have no further contact with the alleged victim. But Dickenson said in the memo that Allen got into at least five subsequent altercations with the woman.
According to the motion, officers with the Kauai Police Department responded to a 911 call on April 13 at around 3:15 a.m., reporting a male choking a female in the parking lot of a bank in Hanapepe. When police arrived, the woman and Allen said they “exchanged words” but were not involved in a physical fight.
Another 911 call came in about Allen four days later, when a man reported seeing “a guy and a girl arguing over a backpack,” prosecutors wrote in the memo. Again police responded to the scene and were told by Allen and the woman that the incident was nothing more than a verbal argument.
Three hours later, Allen was seen by another Hanapepe resident, who called police about a man beating up a woman near the Hanapepe Stadium tennis courts, according to Dickenson, who said in the motion that the woman told officers, “Allen did not hit her, nor did she hit him,” but that the were just “arguing, as usual.”
An anonymous caller told police the couple was fighting near a Hanapepe restaurant a little over a week later, and in July, a 911 caller said “that a male was putting a female in a headlock in front of kids playing soccer,” on a set of park bleachers. Witnesses told police the couple had already fled the scene, and one man said he saw the woman yelling for help as Allen chased her through the park, Dickenson wrote.
Allen was arrested again on Aug. 22 by KPD officers who responded to a call about him arguing with the woman at at the Hanapepe tennis courts. He pleaded no contest the next day to trespassing, and spent two days in jail.
When Allen didn’t show up to his court date on Wednesday, Valenciano ordered a $50,000 bench warrant for Allen’s arrest. The prosecuting attorney asked the judge to revoke bail and issue a bench warrant, a request Valenciano granted, according to court minutes, “given that the defendant is not present and given the seriousness of the allegations.”
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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
Source: The Garden Island
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