Two Hawaiian Brothers Say That Police Framed Them in a 1991 Murder

Two brothers who were convicted in the 1991 rape and murder of a tourist in Hawaii filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday claiming that the police had framed them and then bungled an investigation that could have brought the true killer to justice.

Albert Schweitzer, who goes by his middle name Ian, served 23 years in prison for a life sentence before newly discovered DNA evidence cleared his name and he was freed in 2023.

His brother, Shawn Schweitzer, took a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping in 2000 and spent one year in prison. After Ian’s convictions were overturned and he was released in 2023, Shawn Schweitzer made a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and his conviction was soon vacated.

The brothers argued in the new lawsuit that they “had nothing to do with the crime.” The evidence suggested that an unknown man may have been responsible.

Dana Ireland, a 23-year-old white woman, was biking in a remote area of the Big Island when she was raped and murdered. Investigators grasped for clues for years before indicting the Schweitzers. The brothers, who are part Native Hawaiian and were 20 and 16 at the time of the murder, alleged in the lawsuit that they were targeted after the police were “under immense pressure to solve the high-profile murder.”

In 2023, Kenneth L. Lawson, co-director of the Hawai’i Innocence Project, which represented Mr. Schweitzer in his criminal trial along with the Innocence Project, told The Times that the case’s racial dynamic fueled the news media’s interest in the investigation and put added pressure on the authorities to secure convictions.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, argued that, long after the Schweitzers’ arrest and prosecution, the police also failed to pursue a promising lead last year.

Albert Lauro Jr., a 57-year-old man who lived near where Ms. Ireland’s body was found, killed himself after police took a DNA sample from him in 2024. The lawsuit claims that the police knew that the DNA evidence had linked Mr. Lauro to the crime scene, but that they never attempted to arrest him.

“It’s just an atrocity, what’s happened to these two young men,” William Harrison, a lawyer representing the Schweitzers, said. “Not one shred of evidence pointed to the direction of our clients.”

The brothers named the local police and investigators as defendants in the suit.

A spokeswoman for the police department of Hawaii County said the department would defend itself against the lawsuit’s claims, but declined to comment further. A spokesman for the county government, which is also named in the suit, did not respond to a request for comment.

“Plaintiffs now seek justice for the harm that Defendants have caused and redress for the violation of their constitutional rights and the terrible hardship that they have endured and continue to suffer,” the lawsuit read.

In a separate civil suit, their lawyer said, the brothers are seeking compensation from the state, $50,000 per year incarcerated, for wrongful convictions.

The third person convicted in the murder was Frank Pauline Jr., who was in prison in 1994 for an unrelated crime when he told police he was with Ian and Shawn Schweitzer when they allegedly hit Ms. Ireland with their car and then allegedly sexually assaulted her.

Mr. Pauline’s account changed over the years while police interviewed him, and he recanted his testimony in 1996. Still, the Schweitzer brothers were indicted in 1997 on charges of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. Mr. Pauline was also convicted and given a life sentence. He was killed in prison in 2015.