The Kaua‘i doctor charged with distributing a controlled substance outside of professional medical practice is negotiating with the Alabama U.S. Attorney’s Office but hasn’t pleaded guilty, he said yesterday.

Claiming he is a well-intentioned physician being mischaracterized by the government, Dr. Harold Spear III, of Hanapepe, admitted he consulted with patients suffering from pain across state [...]

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A doctor accused of prescribing pain narcotics to patients he never met will plead guilty to a charge that arose from an Internet pharmacy in Alabama, the U.S. Attorney’s Office there announced yesterday.
Dr. Harold C. Spear III, charged with prescribing hydrocodone pain pills over the Internet, insisted yesterday that his business is legitimate and that [...]

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As part of a two-day drug sweep, helicopters could be seen carting away marijuana plants yesterday as three law enforcement agencies stepped up raids across the island.
At least four helicopters were used during the sweep, dubbed one of several ’super missions’ by officials, as part of a combined effort that included members of Kaua’i police, [...]

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Hawaii Killer Eludes Cops
Kauai police are not overlooking the similarities in the murders of two Caucasian women and the attempted murder of a third woman. In every case, the victim was between 5′ and 5′2″. Each woman weighed about 100 pounds. The women were in their late thirties to mid-forties. All [...]

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Federal and state officials arrested and charged five people in a large-scale marijuana-growing operation on Kauai.
Officials seized about 6,000 marijuana plants in the dense jungle at the foot of Mount Waialeale, which is state land. With an estimated street value of $5.9 million, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo called the case “the largest outdoor marijuana growing [...]

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Hanapepe residents Mike and Curt Smith are awaiting trial after a grand jury indictment for allegedly attempting to traffic roughly 5 kilograms of cocaine through Los Angeles International Airport to Kaua‘i.
Probably best-known for their magazine, Nalu Underground, the Smith brothers are well-known throughout the surfing community. Their Westside magazine operation led to the production of [...]

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Entertainer and Oahu native Bette Midler will pay a $6,500 fine for improperly cutting down more than 200 trees on one of her Kauai properties, an attorney representing her said yesterday.
“It was cleared without permits, and without the realization that permits were necessary,” Kauai attorney Max W.J. Graham said of Midler’s 58,500-square-foot lot in the [...]

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Following a complaint that Dr. Harold Spear had a sexual relationship with a patient — which resulted in a child — the Hanapepe doctor has been prohibited from practicing medicine for one year.
The suspension of Spear’s license has nothing to do with the pending criminal charges against him, Constance Cabral, the state medical board’s administrator, [...]

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As more residents come forward with testimony regarding the con man linked to the disappearance of the late John Elwin, Kaua‘i stands poised again to be in the national spotlight.
News broadcast “Dateline NBC” will air a program Monday night about Elwin’s disappearance and the twists and turns that led investigators to piece together the last [...]

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An apparent traffic accident Wednesday in Princeville was a brazen act of vehicular assault between a man and his estranged wife.
At around noon Wednesday, the estranged wife of Gregory Richard Lund, 49, of Hanalei, had just finished work in Princeville and was leaving the area in her Ford sedan. When she reached the junction of [...]

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