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Owners of the Scarlet Honolulu and the Gay Island Guide claimed they were targeted by bigoted investigators, physical violence, and a very public death threat.
A lawsuit filed by the owners of a gay bar and a gay guide in Hawaii against the Honolulu Liquor Commission (HLC) came to an abrupt end on Tuesday following seven hours of damaging and emotional testimony from one of the plaintiffs, Hawaii Now News reported.
The Scarlet Honolulu gay bar and the Gay Island Guide filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Honolulu Liquor Commission and the City of Honolulu in 2021. They claimed they were targeted with years of harassment from the commission because of the investigators’ clear anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and that the abuse became worse during the pandemic.
Joseph Luna, a co-owner of the Scarlet Honolulu and a plaintiff in the case, spent seven hours on the stand on Tuesday discussing a range of topics including growing up in the closet. Luna described the years of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry he endured from the HLC, including one incident where he was shoved by an inspector.
Many in the courtroom were left in tears following Luna’s testimony, and HLC quickly moved to settle the case, the outlet reports.
As part of the settlement, HLC agreed to assign inspections randomly and require body cameras for all investigators. They also agreed to oversight by the federal court with quarterly monitoring and reports, as well as a separate independent review conducted by the city. HLC also agreed to pay $670,000 to Scarlet Honolulu and Gay Island Guide.
The suit contained testimony alleging years of anti-LGBTQ+ abuse from commission investigators, with testimony from a whistleblower initially hired by the commission. Others not party to the suit also had damning complaints about the HLC.
Steve Haumschild, founder of Lanikai Brewing Company, who was not a plaintiff said his bar was unfairly targeted during the pandemic after he became a vocal critic of HLC. Haumschild said he was visited nine times in three months and shut down several times after he voiced his complaints.
“You can only be left to think that there’s some sort of underlying corruption or gross incompetence,” Haumschild told HNN.
The commission was also accused of issuing death threats in the form of graffiti against a witness for the plaintiffs, Civil Beat reported. Baldwin’s partner, Robert Sobieralski, has filed hundreds of public records requests with the city in the case. In late October of 2021, Sobieralski said he saw “Rob is dead” written on the side of a building he frequently passed on his way to retrieve records. The graffiti appeared shortly after the suit was filed.
An investigator hired by the commission became a whistleblower for the plaintiffs, HNN reports. Jhumar Ray Waite resigned his position after he uncovered rampant illegal, unethical, and anti-LGBTQ+ behavior during his investigation. He said investigators repeatedly slowed down and pointed out the building where Baldwin and Sobieraski lived.
He later wrote in his statement that the “repeated nature of these incidents and the context in which they were made led me to feel unsettled.”
Baldwin summed up his view of HLC during the height of the legal proceedings in 2022.
“It’s just becoming very apparent that this organization is completely rotten from the top to the bottom,” Baldwin toldHNNat the time.
