By JOHN BURNETT
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The father of an expelled former Kamehameha Schools student accused of making online threats to the security of the school’s Hawaii Campus in Keaau has been charged by prosecutors with felony habitual DUI.
The four-count complaint filed Friday in Hilo Circuit Court also accuses 68-year-old James Allen Costa of Hilo with having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle and driving after his license was suspended or revoked and without insurance. Habitual DUI is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
A police log indicates that Costa was pulled over by Hilo Patrol Officer Gabriel Wilson on Kamana Street near Kinoole Street in Hilo at about 9 p.m. The log also states that Costa refused to take a sobriety test when ordered. Court records indicate that Costa was adjudicated in Hilo District Court for the incident but that the DUI charge was not prosecuted as a felony. All of those charges, including refusing the sobriety test, were dropped by prosecutor, records state.
According to court records, Costa’s license was revoked in an administrative hearing on March 17, 2009 for driving under the influence of alcohol. He was later convicted on DUI charges on Dec. 23, 2009, and May 26, 2010. He also has a trial set for Nov. 14 in Hilo District Court for allegedly driving after his license was suspended and revoked, inattention to driving and leaving the scene of an accident last Oct. 8. He was also convicted for DUI in 1983 and 1990, but prosecutors are only allowed to consider convictions within the past 10 years if charging an individual as a habitual DUI offender.
Costa’s history also includes a federal drug conviction. He was arrested in April 2000 in a joint sweep by police and federal drug agents that netted 32 individuals. According to federal court records, Costa made a plea deal after being indicted for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. He was released from federal probation in February 2006.
His son, 19-year-old Jeremy James Costa, has had a series of bizarre run-ins with the law in the past year.
After being expelled from the school’s Keaau campus in August 2011, he allegedly tried to enter the school twice last October. On Oct. 24, he was reportedly intercepted by security and turned away. That night, he allegedly posted threats on Facebook aimed at school security, including “rent a cops must die.” The posts also referred to the 2007 Virginia Tech campus massacre. He was then arrested the following morning at the corner of Kilauea Avenue and Haihai Street and charged with first-degree terroristic threatening. Police said he was trying to hitchhike to the private school’s campus, wearing a school uniform shirt and carrying books. When confronted, the teen allegedly tore off the shirt and challenged officers to a fight.
His next court date for that incident is scheduled for Oct. 17.
In January, the younger Costa was arrested for domestic abuse in a case where he allegedly sat on his father, and for threatening two police officers, including Wilson. In June, he was also arrested for allegedly masturbating in a video phone call to an acquaintance and for allegedly grabbing a woman he didn’t know and kissing her later the same day.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.