An 81-year-old Kaua'i man has been found not guilty of negligent homicide, more than a year after a motorcyclist collided with his station wagon and died.

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An 81-year-old Kaua'i man has been found not guilty of negligent homicide, more than a year after a motorcyclist collided with his station wagon and died. Defense attorney Al Castillo said a jury acquitted Louis Parraga Jr. after about an hour of deliberations.

A county incident report shows that 20-year-old Stetson Furtado died Sept. 14, 2007 when his Suzuki motorcycle collided with Parraga's Dodge station wagon as it slowly merged onto Kaumuali'i Highway.

Furtado slid across the highway and onto the eastbound shoulder. Castillo said Furtado was speeding. Parraga was found not guilty Dec. 18. He was facing up to five years' imprisonment if he had been convicted.

Kkim -

What has been the Kauai public's view of this case? Mostly in favor of the driver or the motorcyclist?

sorry... can't say. this is the first I've heard about it. :confused20:

My apologies; I have this silly (and incorrect) assumption that Hawaii is small enough that everyone must know each other. But after finding out we live in California, more than once people have asked something along the lines of "Do you know _insert name here_?" with a genuine expectation that we must be buds. :)

No, you're correct on that assumption... especially on Kauai. pop. est 60,000.

I don't keep up with local events. :o

I really expected it to be more dense than that. I dont consider my county to be that dense, but we have about 800 people/sq mi. I looked it up and Kauai has about 100 people/sq mi.