Documents Show Kauai Officials Called Off Dam Probe

New information has come to light in the investigation of the Kauai dam disaster earlier this year, which killed seven people.
Documents show Kauai's former mayor intervened to help Jimmy Pflueger when engineers tried to stop construction work near the reservoir.
The documents raise the question: Did county officials back off an investigation into grading near the doomed reservoir nine years before it failed?
In November 1997, Pflueger was cited for grading without a permit near Kaloko. Mayor Maryanne Kusaka wrote that Pflueger called her angrily, saying he had a right to know who complained about him.
"I've never seen the government act so quickly. In eight days, they had the county engineer who brought this to her attention and saying you know we can't have anonymous complaints," said attorney Richard Fried.
Fried represents some of the families suing the state over the March disaster.
A county engineer named John Buist Jr. documented the 1997 meeting, where Kusaka said chasing anonymous tips was waste of taxpayer money and wondered why large landowners can't do as they please. Buist wrote that his boss, County Engineer Cesar Portugal, instructed him to stop all actions involving Pflueger.
The county did follow up on the violation five years later when grading without permits was reported again.
"This is a major concern as to why the mayor seemingly was not interested in getting to the bottom of this," Fried said.
Pflueger's attorney said there is nothing unusual about a citizen calling the mayor and that it's "certainly not illegal or incriminating."
The county had no comment.