TUSTIN : Officer Left Crash, Had Gun, Suit Says

A lawsuit filed by an Anaheim woman this week alleges that an off-duty Tustin police officer rear-ended her taxicab, drove off and then pointed a gun at her head when she cornered him.

The suit filed Wednesday by Shirley Lewis, 52, alleges that last Aug. 1, Alexander Kiilehua, 45, ran into the taxi Lewis was driving and fled. She followed him about three-fourths of a mile and blocked his car in a parking lot, according to the police report.

Lewis claims in her suit that Kiilehua yelled at her, brandished his gun and pointed it at her head before showing his badge and identifying himself as a police officer.

Kiilehua told police that he hit Lewis’ taxi twice and drove away from the scene because traffic was too heavy to stop safely there, according to the police report. He said that he was irritated when she later blocked his car, but he denied pointing the gun at her.

Kiilehua said he immediately showed his badge to Lewis, identified himself as a police officer and “partially removed his off-duty, semiautomatic, gray steel pistol from his purse so that the driver could see it.”

Lewis’ allegations of gun brandishing and pointing the gun are “not true,” he said Thursday.

Lewis began screaming “Mayday” to her dispatcher, the police report said.

After Tustin police arrived, she was taken by ambulance to the Healthcare Medical Center’s emergency room. Since then, she said, she has had pain in her back and arms resulting from the accident and has been off work.

Lewis’ attorney, Martin Wiener of Beverly Hills, has requested unspecified damages.

“All I want out of this is justice,” Lewis said. “I . . . don’t think a police officer should be able to act like that.”

Chief of Police Douglas Franks declined through his secretary to answer questions about the incident or the lawsuit.

The suit names Kiilehua, the city and Enterprise Leasing Co. of America, the company from which his car is leased.

In 1985, Kiilehua was involved in another off-duty incident when he tried to arrest a man he believed was an intruder in the carport of the apartment complex where he lived. During a struggle, the man was accidentally shot in the face, police said at the time.

A lawsuit in connection with the incident was settled when the city agreed to pay the man $90,500. Kiilehua said Thursday that case occurred so long ago that he could not remember the details of the settlement, but that he did nothing wrong.