HONOLULU – A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is accusing her ex-husband, a Honolulu police officer, of years of abuse.
And she says the Honolulu Police Department helped cover it up.
Donna Garcia and officer Ronald Lombardi divorced in 2011 and she has since moved to the mainland with their two children.
However, her attorney says he continues to harass and threaten her and HPD is failing to keep her and her kids safe.
“This guy is basically making threats, harassing her, disrupting her life years after they separated and the police department seems to think that’s OK,” said attorney Eric Seitz.
This lawsuit filed on Thursday alleges a decade of emotional and physical abuse by Lombardi.
According to the department, Lombardi is still on full duty in Wahiawa.
The lawsuit says TROs filed by Garcia in 2008 were mishandled and ignored by Lombardi’s fellow officers and supervisors.
According to the lawsuit, “Lombardi was allowed to abuse his position as a police officer to proclaim his innocence and to enlist the aid of his fellow officers in a campaign of harassment and intimidation.”
Many of those officers are named in the federal lawsuit.
“She has filed complaints about his conduct with the police department, with the Prosecutor’s Office here and nobody seems to take any action or express any concerned,” Seitz said.
The lawsuit also said that HPD “has a de facto policy, practice, or custom of favoring its own officers by ignoring reported instances of domestic violence and misconduct.”
Seitz says it is a disturbing pattern.
“Frankly, this has been a rogue police department and it’s very discouraging and it’s very damaging to the community to have people who are supposed to be upholding the law, wantonly violating it. Our hope is the new police chief will set a whole new course of action,” he said.
Hawaii News Now was unable to reach Lombardi for comment.
However, the lawsuit says he passed a lie detector test when allegations were made against him.