Honolulu settles with lesbian couple arrested after kissing

HONOLULU - Honolulu will pay $80,000 to settle a lesbian couple's lawsuit alleging a city police officer wrongfully arrested them after seeing them kissing in a grocery store while on vacation.

The settlement was announced Friday in federal court in Honolulu. It's still subject to City Council approval.

Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero were visiting Hawaii form Los Angeles last year when they say they were harassed and arrested because Officer Bobby Harrison didn't like their public displays of affection in a Foodland store on Oahu's North Shore.

The lawsuit says they were walking through the aisles holding hands and at one point hugged and kissed. The women say they complied when the officer told them to "take it somewhere else."

After a scuffle, the officer arrested them.

After the hearing announcing the settlement, Wilson told CBS affiliate KGMB in Honolulu the episode has left her exhausted.

"I don't really know what either of us were looking to get honestly," she said, by phone. "It wasn't money or anything. We wanted to be compensated, but I think more or less we wanted Officer Harrison to suffer some sort of repercussions for his actions."

KGMB reports HPD opened an internal investigation based on the allegations, but never said whether Harrison was placed on leave. The 26-year veteran retired two months after the lawsuit was filed.

Wilson told KGMB she and Guerrero are no longer together, but both women hope their story can be a lesson for others.