They Don’t Know How Much My Life Changed With Two Arrests In a Foreign Country
I was arrested by the Honolulu Police Department in March, 2018 and my case was pending at court about for 10 months until the judge dismissed my case with prejudice in January, 2019. While my criminal case was over, I had been totally exhausted by the unjustified charges against me.
When my criminal case was dismissed, I thought that the “evil “ against me was completely gone. However, it still continued. My criminal case was over on January 23rd, 2019. And the next month, on February 5th, I was arrested again.
One car was parked in front of my house at around 6:30am on February 5th, 2019. Three men started to ring a bell at the entrance. Everyone was sleeping at my house. I decided to come down to open the door for them. As soon as I opened the door, they quickly came inside my house without asking me and asked me about my name.
" Hey, can we talk to Rika? "
“ Yes, it’s me.”
They asked me to show them my passport and I went to my room to go get it. They followed me and came inside my room without asking me. Once I passed my passport to one of the men, they tried to take me downstairs. Their strained atmosphere made me feel uncomfortable. And I had a bad feeling from their behavior.
“ Before we go downstairs, may I change my clothes? “
I unconsciously said that. They allowed me to do so and I changed my clothes in the bathroom. One of them was seeing me change my clothes there. I could not ask him not to do so because of how he looked at me. I was sure that my bad feelings from their behavior which I felt a few minutes before were right.
When I went outside the entrance door, one of them put handcuffs on my arms.
“ Why do you do this? Why? “
“ We have to arrest you. “
They didn’t tell me about the reason why they did it. They were chatting together in the car on the way to the Immigration Office in Ala Moana. Fortunately, they gave me permission to use my cellphone to contact my immigration attorney whom I had hired for my criminal case. He didn’t know the reason why I was arrested by the Immigration Office either.
At the Immigraion Office, they did some paperwork, took pics of my face and took all of my fingerprints. The entire situation made me very uncomfortable but they had me smile while taking my pictures. I wanted to cry right there and then.
They put me in a cell next to their office.
The cell was much cleaner than the one in the Honolulu Police Station. I could compare them because I had the experience in both. The cell quickly reminded me of all of the bad experiences that happened to me in the past. I had to use the bathroom which doesn’t have a door and really cold in the cell. I started to cry but I didn’t have anyone to console me. The tears kept coming into my eyes.
After a while, one male officer came close to the cell humming and asked me if I want to watch movies. I said no, but he started to play a movie without respect and moved the screen toward me. One Disney movie was played three or four times until I was released. I continued to ask the officers why I was arrested, but they never answered.
After the Disney movie was played twice, one female officer came close to the cell to ask me if I was hungry. I said no, but she asked me what I wanted to eat, a cup noodles or a burrito. I gave in and said “ burrito “. She took one burrito from the freezer, heated it up and gave it to me through the cage. I just left it on the bench inside the cell and continued to cry.
The Disney movie was played one more time and the officer who came to my house and arrested me came close to the cell.
“ Your attorney will get you out soon. But you have to do something. “
“ Something? What is that? “
He started to give a call to my attorney outside the cell and passed me the handset through the cage.
“ I will get you out today. But you have to pay the bail and have the GPS on your ankle. “
“ What? Why should I do it? They didn’t even tell me the reason of my arrest. “
“ I don’t know the reason either. Getting you out is the first priority. We can talk about it later. Okay? “
“ What is the GPS? What is that? “
“ They will monitor you. I know you won’t run away. But you have to do it to be released today. Once you go to jail, it would be more difficult to be released. Okay?”
“ …Okay. “
“ Please do not sign into any document if you cannot understand until I will be there. It may affect your case. Okay? “
“ Okay.”
After I talked to my attorney, the officer brought some paperwork and tried to finish it. He said that it was the document to let me release me. He started to read over the document and I tried to understand it. However, I was still not sure about the reason why they arrested me because he didn’t explain it at all.
“ I cannot understand the reason why I am here. So I cannot sign into this document. “
The officer started to get angry obviously and said,
“ If you don’t sign into this, you are going to be in jail today. “
I wanted to follow what my attorney told me, but if I follow it, I was going to be in jail without being released. I started to cry again because of the unreasonable demand by the officer. Seeing me crying, he was getting more angry.
“ Okay. You are not going to sign in now? You will be in jail then! “
“ Is it possible to wait for my attorney to come here? I can’t understand this document and can’t sign into it. My attorney told me not to do it if I can’t understand it completely. “
“ No. You cannot wait for your attorney now. I want to finish this right now. Right now! If you don’t sign into this right now. You will be in jail today. “
Signing into the document that I cannot understand to be released, or following my attorney and going to jail.
I could not choose one of them but I had to make a decision right away. I totally felt threatened and scared about the situation. I was still crying but he was still yelling at me.
Saved by the bell
At that time, my attorney showed up. He read the document quickly and told me to sign into it. I was released. I was released without going to jail. But I didn’t know the reason why I was in the cell. I even paid the bail and had GPS on my ankle without notifying the reason of my arrest.
My immigration case was supposed to be on March 27th, 2019.
I had to wait for 2 months, so I decided to make a request to move up the court date through my attorney. I didn’t want to just wait that long without knowing the reason why they arrested me and with the GPS still on my ankle.
This is the pic taken when my GPS was on my ankle. It was too big and too heavy for my body.
Actually they put the smaller GPS below on my ankle first. But it didn’t work well and they decided to put the biggest one on me.
After all, the GPS on my ankle didn’t work correctly and I was in trouble with it for a while.
I could not take off the GPS at all and had to charge it while I was sleeping at night. I felt as if I was a machine that wasn’t able to have feelings or any type of emotion. This terrible experience made me cry alone in my room every night. The ankle monitor was broken a few days after I had it on my ankle and started to beep whenever I didn’t connect the charger. Even when I was connected with it, it was beeping and repeating to say “ Please charge. “ with a loud voice.
That happened on the weekend. I called the hotline which should be open 24 hours but they didn’t answer. I called the officer in charge but he didn’t answer. I called my attorney, but he said that there was nothing to do for it. I couldn’t go out anywhere with it beeping. I didn’t want to get in a taxi or a bus. I couldn’t eat at all from too much stress. I couldn’t even take a shower because I must have been connected with the charger all the time, otherwise it started to beep loud right away.
I wasn’t able to feel like a human being.
My arrest changed my life. But nobody cared about it at all. Next Monday, I went to the Immigraion Office in my friend’s car with my GPS beeping. The officer told me to come back the next day because officers in charge of GPSs were off on Monday’s. Although he saw my GPS making loud noises from my ankle, that’s what he said to me. I was really disappointed and my friend was speechless because the situation was hopeless. I had to ask my attorney for help on the situation. After my attorney discussed my GPS with the officer at the Immigration Office, my GPS was finally removed.
My immigraion case was not pending at Court.
A few weeks later, a letter was sent to my attorney’s office. It said that my request to move up my court date was denied. The court didn’t know my case at all, which meant that the Immigraion Officer arrested me without any paperwork. They didn’t notify the court about my case. My attorney was really surprised and rushed to the Immigraion Office to address the situation.
The Immigraion Office canceled my case.
That’s it. They arrested me, set up the bail, put GPS on me and canceled the case. They did those things. They didn’t apologize to me even after the arrest obviously changed my life. I was suffering from the situation, but they tried to make it look like “ Nothing happened.” It took some time to get my passport back from the Immigration office because my file was missing at their office. I was sure that they didn’t even care about my case. I felt the same way when the prosecutor’s office left my criminal case without any investigation at all last year. I could remove the record on my criminal case, but I am not able to do it for the immigraion case record. It is the immigration rule. I have to live with “ the wound “ forever… until I die.
I still have to fight for the damages from my arrests by the Honolulu Police and the Immigraion Office. Even if my criminal case was dismissed with prejudice by the judge and my arrest by the Immigration Office was canceled, the wounds hurt my status in the US and make my visa extension more difficult. I think that they already forgot my arrests. They have never thought that they made mistakes. They have never thought that they could negatively impact people’s lives. They have never been aware of their mistakes. I will never be able to get the time spent on the caseback.
Even if “ nothing happened” to THEM, those things happened to ME.
I remember the time when I fought against them and I am still fighting for my freedom and freedom for others. I will never forget this experience.
