HONOLULU (KHON2) — Nathaniel Radimak was scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning to face charges and enter a plea for unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and assaulting a mother and daughter last week.
Instead, he remains hospitalized following what officials say was a physical altercation while in custody at Halawa Correctional Facility.
Unlike most pretrial inmates who are housed at Oahu Community Correctional Center, Radimak was transferred to Halawa due to a parole violation, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Radimak was arrested last week after allegedly punching Diane Ung and her 18-year-old daughter in the face after Ung reportedly yelled at him to slow down. Her 7-month-old granddaughter was in the back seat at the time.
What’s drawing national attention now is not only what happened on that Kakaako street, but also what led up to it.
Radimak has a documented history of road rage incidents in California. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison but was released after serving less than one year. His parole was later transferred to Hawaii under circumstances that remain unclear.
“This is what happens when the criminal justice system fails victims, which it did in California. And now, a young mother in Hawaii is paying the price, as well as our clients,” said Gloria Allred, a high-profile victims’ rights attorney.
Allred represented several of Radimak’s victims in Los Angeles. She said their rights were violated when they were not notified about his plea deal prior to his early release.
“Many of the women who alleged they were victims of Radimak were never told what their victims’ rights were — including the right to be informed and weigh in on his plea deal,” said Allred.
Hawaii’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation declined to comment on Radimak’s parole transfer, citing an ongoing investigation.
Another of Radimak’s alleged victims in Honolulu said she recorded an encounter with him at Planet Fitness, where he allegedly threatened her for walking in front of him while he was working out. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said he should not have been released on parole due to his violent history.
“If this video proof can help ensure he’s locked away and can never lay his hands on another woman again, then absolutely, I would do it again,” she said.
Allred said one of her clients from California expressed solidarity with the Hawaii victims.
“I spoke to one of my clients, and she wanted me to share that her heart goes out to this mother in Hawaii,” said Allred. “She has some sense of how she must feel, given her own similar situation — though she didn’t have a baby in the back seat, which makes it even more frightening. She hopes justice is served.”
When asked whether the California Department of Corrections should have flagged Radimak as a high-risk parolee and blocked his transfer, Allred responded, “I don’t know why they didn’t. It seems like yet another failing in this case.”
Radimak’s arraignment has been rescheduled for next Thursday.
Allred said that after he is tried in Hawaii, she will request that he be extradited to California to serve the remainder of his sentence for the parole violation.