A 32-year-old Honokaa man accused of causing a traffic collision that killed two women in Hamakua more than two years ago is back behind bars.
A 32-year-old Honokaa man accused of causing a traffic collision that killed two women in Hamakua more than two years ago is back behind bars.
According to a police log, Alfred Berdon III was arrested and charged Thursday with failure to maintain bail or bond.
Berdon’s trial was scheduled to start Monday, but he was not in court. His Honolulu attorney, Michael Green, told Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura his client is in custody because Berdon’s family “exonerated” — meaning to relieve themselves of — the $32,000 bail in his case.
“The family is concerned … that he is having a major breakdown. … The bail is not going to be re-posted,” Green said. “I’d like to try to get him into a dual diagnosis program. … It seems to me he needs it.”
Green told the judge he attempted Friday to arrange for Berdon to be transported to court from Hawaii Community Correctional Center but was unable to do so “through the fault of no one.”
Nakamura set a hearing for 8 a.m. Jan. 7 for further proceedings.
Berdon, whose mother and brother were present in the courtroom gallery, is charged with two counts each of first-degree negligent homicide, first-degree negligent injury and second-degree negligent injury. He could be sentenced to 10 years in prison if convicted of first-degree negligent homicide.
According to police, Berdon was driving a pickup truck on Hawaii Belt Road (Highway 19) near Kalopa at about 4:23 p.m. Sept. 10, 2012, when he collided with a van he was attempting to pass. The van, carrying landscapers from Puna Certified Nursery returning home from a job in Waikoloa, was run off the road and went down a 15-foot embankment into Kalopa Gulch.
Killed in the collision were 61-year-old Josefina Visaya and 54-year-old Patrocinia Cadang, both of Keaau. Three other women were critically injured in the crash, and four other people sustained less serious injuries.
Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville told the Tribune-Herald in September 2012 that Berdon tested positive the day after the crash for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid painkiller marketed as Oxycontin.
“That is only based on a urine test,” Damerville said at the time. “That’s a presumptive test; it’s not a lab test. Typically, that would go out to a lab to determine whether or not it’s a false positive because, sometimes, it can be.”
Berdon was indicted in May by a grand jury in Hilo. County Prosecutor Mitch Roth at the time declined to disclose the results of Berdon’s toxicology reports.
Green said after the hearing he wants Berdon diagnosed for substance abuse and mental health.
“People that are using drugs or alcohol, aside from the addiction, there’s also mental health issues,” he said. “… It’s pretty brave of the family to do this. It took a lot of courage to talk to your son and brother and do this.”
For Visaya’s family, her death was the first of two traffic fatalities it endured in a little more than a year. Visaya’s husband, 66-year-old Cenon Visaya, was riding a bicycle Sept. 27, 2013, on the shoulder of Volcano Highway (Highway 11) near Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii, when a pickup truck heading in the other direction crossed the median and two lanes of oncoming traffic and struck him, killing him instantly.
The truck’s driver, 28-year-old Siaiku “Lucky” Aholelei of Mountain View, was sentenced Oct. 13 to 10 years in prison for negligent homicide.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.