'The Other Side of Paradise' with Lynn Kawano

The man behind the DNA discovery in the Dana Ireland case said Hawaii County police had enough to arrest the suspect on July 19. Instead, Albert Lauro, Jr., was released and committed suicide four days later. Stephen Kramer, a former federal prosecutor and the man who co-founded the FBI’s forensic genealogy team, said a DNA match from the national database CODIS was enough probable cause to arrest Lauro for Ireland’s 1991 murder.

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Over the last two years, dozens of Oahu drivers have been arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence with breathalyzer results of 0.00 — meaning no alcohol showed as present in their system, HNN Investigates has found.

In the latest episode of "The Other Side of Paradise," Lynn Kawano speaks to a driver who was arrested despite being sober and gets a new response from HPD to her exclusive investigation.

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After nearly two days of deliberation, a federal jury returned a not guilty verdict in the sprawling bribery case against Keith Kaneshiro, Honolulu’s longest-serving prosecutor.

In the latest episode of "The Other Side of Paradise," Lynn Kawano talks to the jury foreman in the case, who said while he knew there was "something wrong," the evidence presented didn't back up the government's allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. 

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Every year, thousands of Hawaii residents leave the islands for opportunities and economic relief on the continent. Many end up in Las Vegas, now home away from home for a considerable contingent of Hawaii transplants, including Native Hawaiians. In “Priced Out of Paradise,” HNN investigative reporter Lynn Kawano puts a fresh spotlight on the thriving Hawaii community she found in the Ninth Island.

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First responders are being called to overdoses daily in Hawaii as fentanyl takes hold across the state. And stopping the drug pipeline won’t be easy, experts say.

To understand the crisis, HNN Investigates traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a new series exploring the heavy toll of fentanyl in the islands. Anthony Chrysanthis, the deputy special agent in charge of the DEA’s Los Angeles field office, said just about all of the fentanyl and methamphetamine in Hawaii are made in clandestine labs in Mexico run by the cartels.

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HNN Investigative Reporter Lynn Kawano takes you behind the scenes of a story that's rocked Hawaii's football community: Two former Hawaii football players making headlines as college starters have agreed to settle a civil lawsuit stemming from a criminal, sex assault case that was handled in juvenile court.

Jayden de Laura, the starting quarterback at the University of Arizona and Kamoi Latu, the starting safety at the University of Wisconsin, agreed to pay a woman who said she was raped by the players on October 27, 2018, after the St. Louis Crusaders beat Punahou in the ILH championship game.

The girl was 16 years old at the time. Both boys were underage, too.

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On the afternoon of Christmas Eve 1991, 23-year-old Dana Ireland left her parents’ home in Puna for a bike ride and never returned.

Good Samaritans called 911 after finding her mangled bicycle, a shoe, and clumps of hair ― but no rider.

Thirty minutes later and five miles away, Ireland was found in the bushes of a fishing trail, nude from the waist down and barely conscious. She died at the hospital from blood loss and multiple traumatic injuries.

A decade later, three Hawaii Island men would be convicted for her murder, the shocking details of which reverberated around the entire state. But the story doesn’t end there: An exoneration based in large part on advances in DNA technology turned the Dana Ireland murder into a cold case rather than a solved one.

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Eloy, Arizona is in the middle of the desert ― about an hour from Phoenix.

It’s a sharp contrast from Hawaii. But it’s where 1,000 Hawaii inmates are currently housed at Saguaro Correctional Center, a facility the state pays millions to each year to relieve overcrowding at in-state facilities.

Hawaii News Now was the only television news crew allowed inside since it was built in 2007 to ease overcrowding in the islands.

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Newly unsealed court documents include disturbing new allegations in the murder case against Michael Miske, the businessman accused of running a criminal enterprise.

Miske is accused in the kidnapping and murder of 21-year old Johnathan Fraser.

The previously secret filings also link the murder case to the killing of another man, a confidential source who knew the information he provided law enforcement put him in danger.

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Russian spies in Hawaii? That's the allegations from the U.S. Attorney's office.  Prosecutors say a couple from Kapolei are accused of stealing the identities of dead babies from Texas in the 1980s, and living under those names for decades.  Alongside those accusations are photos of the couple in KGB uniforms. There are doubts though about the spy claims, as the government has retracted some of it's statement about the couple's aliases and reveals new details about the evidence.

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