Thursday, October 18, 2018
Hilo doctor arrested
Bade and four of his employees face drug trafficking charges
By MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
An 80-year-old Hilo
doctor and four of his staff
members were arrested by
federal agents Tuesday on
drug trafficking charges.
Dr. Ernest Bade was
apprehended at his clinic
at 260 Osorio Lane in Hilo
by U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency officers and Hawaii
County deputies Tuesday.
Bade and four of his
employees — 80-year-old
Marie Benevides, 59-year-old
Theresa Saltus, 54-year-old
Yvonne Caitano and 32-yearold
Sheena Strong — were
charged with conspiracy to
distribute and possessing to
distribute Schedule II, III, IV
and V controlled substances.
Neither Bade nor any of
his arrested employees have
any prior criminal record in
Hawaii outside of miscellaneous
traffic offenses,
according to Hawaii
court records.
According to a
U.S. District Court
criminal complaint, the
DEA was first informed
about Bade’s activities in
2014, when a Hilo pharmacist
told investigators that Bade
authorized prescriptions for
controlled substances such
as methadone, oxycodone
and morphine suspiciously
frequently
and at unusually
high dosages.
That frequency, in
addition to Bade’s habits
of prescribing opioids
alongside muscle relaxants
and benzodiazepine — a
combination avoided by legitimate
medical professionals
because of its high risk of
overdose, but sought after by
the black market — triggered
the beginning of an undercover
investigation into Bade’s
activities in May 2015.
That month, an undercover
officer obtained a prescription
for morphine from Bade
after complaining of shoulder
pain. The following month,
the officer returned with
another officer and obtained
additional medications.
Resolution would have benefited
those commercial properties with
businesses hurt by Kilauea eruption
‘Year of the Dog’
Photographer hopes exhibit will help others cope with lava disaster
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See CHARGES Page A5
Council rejects
tax relief for
Pahoa, Volcano
By TOM CALLIS
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Puna Councilwoman
Eileen O’Hara was
unable to muster support
Wednesday for a
resolution seeking to
provide tax relief for
commercial properties
in Pahoa and Volcano.
The County Council
voted against the property
tax amnesty measure
a second time 7-1, with
O’Hara voting yes and
Puna Councilwoman Jen
Ruggles absent. It would
have requested the county
administration impose
the minimum tax rate
on properties in Pahoa
and Volcano that host
businesses impacted by
the Kilauea eruption.
Businesses in both
villages were severely
impacted by the eruption,
which destroyed
more than 700 homes in
lower Puna and caused a
lengthy closure of Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park.
Pahoa merchants
told council members
that they are still struggling
to recover.
“Tenants are now
reporting revenue decreases
up to 40 percent,” said
Suzanne Kruppa, owner
of Pahoa Marketplace.
“Some are on the
verge of collapse.”
O’Hara said Pahoa is
at risk of
becoming a
ghost town.
“This is
really needed
now, and
at the rate
the county
is moving,
we’re not
going to
get any
help in the
short term,”
she said.
While
sympathetic
to their
plight, other
council
members
said they
had the
same issues
with the measure as when
it was given a negative
recommendation in committee
two weeks before,
mainly that it provides
tax breaks to some commercial
properties but
not others. Several said
businesses around the
See TAX RELIEF Page A9
HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald
Melissa Schelling holds a collage of her photographs depicting her and her dogs’ experience evacuating
lower Puna because of the lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kilauea volcano. Schelling’s exhibit, “Year of
the Dog: Lava Evacuation,” is now in the Fountain Gallery of the Wailoa Center until Oct. 25.
By STEPHANIE SALMONS
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Melissa Schelling
had a photography
exhibit planned at
the Wailoa Center in Hilo long
before Kilauea’s eruption forced
her to evacuate from her lower
Puna home earlier this year.
In February, Schelling began
a personal project, “Year of the
Dog,” with the goal of photographing
dogs every day. She
was scheduled for an October
exhibit and ready to print her
photos when the eruption began
in May in Leilani Estates.
The exhibit was always
supposed to be about dogs,
she said, but “as soon as the
eruption happened, I had to
change all the ideas I had
because it was the biggest and
most important event happening
to me right now. I could
not ignore it, so my show had
to be about evacuating.”
She spoke Wednesday from
the Wailoa Center’s Fountain
Gallery, where “Year of the Dog:
Lava Evacuation” is on display
through Oct. 25. The exhibition
looks at the effects of this year’s
lava disaster by combining
daily photos of her own pups
— Whiskey, a mutt, and Coco,
a border terrier — lava near
her home, and messages from
Hawaii County Civil Defense.
See EXHIBIT Page A9
A spooky circus is
coming to the Palace
and is sure to be a
ghoulishly good time
STORY IN ISLAND BEAT ● A10
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