Batarti Gabbard, the 55-year-old brother of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, faces a custodial interference charge after Honolulu police say he offered children money and gum to follow him to his hotel room.
The alleged incident took place around 2 p.m. on July 12 at the pool area of a Waikiki hotel, where Gabbard allegedly approached several children, including a 9-year-old boy, asked their names, wrote them down in a notebook, and tried to coax the kids back to his room with offers of cash and gum. The children refused. Gabbard walked away. A 42-year-old woman who witnessed the encounter reported it to Honolulu police, who charged him with second-degree custodial interference.
Four days later, on July 16, police arrested Gabbard again, this time on a separate theft charge. He pleaded not guilty to the theft count and was released. He is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 14 on that case. No court date has been set on the custodial interference charge.
Family says marijuana triggered a mental health episode
Batarti Gabbard, born Bhakti Gabbard, has a history of mental health problems, according to his family. His father, Hawaii state Sen. Mike Gabbard, declined to discuss the specific allegations but confirmed his son is receiving medical and psychiatric treatment. The elder Gabbard told the New York Post that his son "has had mental issues in the past but has been doing well for the last 10 years" and that he recently "started acting erratically, as a result of smoking pot."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the senator struck a more personal note:
"We love him, and asked him to follow the protocol at the hospital, which he says he will do. We're praying for his speedy recovery, and would appreciate the prayers of others."
The family's account frames the poolside encounter as a crisis brought on by substance use and untreated psychiatric symptoms, not predatory intent. That framing may carry weight with a judge down the road. But the charge on the books is custodial interference, a crime Hawaii law treats as an attempt to take or entice a minor away from a lawful custodian. Whatever the underlying cause, the conduct police describe, an adult stranger writing down children's names and offering them inducements to leave a public area for a private hotel room, is the kind of behavior that triggers immediate alarm from any parent or bystander.
Honolulu police confirmed to Fox News Digital that Gabbard is no longer in custody. It remains unclear whether his psychiatric treatment predated the July 12 incident or began afterward. The specific nature of the separate theft charge has not been disclosed.
Tulsi Gabbard has not responded publicly
Fox News Digital reached out to Tulsi Gabbard through her public office and left a voicemail requesting comment. She did not immediately respond. Breitbart reported that the former DNI resigned her position in June, weeks before her brother's arrest. The timing is coincidental as far as the available record shows, but the family connection guarantees public scrutiny.
Batarti Gabbard is not a public official. He holds no government post. His sister's prominence, however, makes the case nationally visible in a way that a routine custodial interference charge in Honolulu would not normally be. Cases involving public figures or their relatives and allegations involving children draw outsized attention, and rightly so, because the public has a legitimate interest in how the justice system handles them.
Several key questions remain unanswered. How many children did Gabbard approach at the pool? The police account says "several" but provides no precise number beyond identifying the 9-year-old boy. What hospital or facility is treating him? Has he retained counsel on the custodial interference charge? None of these details have surfaced publicly.
The theft arrest four days after the pool incident adds another layer. Two arrests inside a single week, on unrelated charges, fits the family's description of a man in the grip of an acute episode. It also raises a practical question about why he was free to be arrested a second time after the first encounter with police.
Law enforcement agencies across the country have stepped up efforts to protect children from predatory behavior, and the public expects those standards to apply evenly, whether the suspect is a stranger with no connections or the brother of a former cabinet-level official.
The Aug. 14 court date on the theft case will be the next public checkpoint. The custodial interference charge, the more serious matter in the eyes of most parents, still has no hearing scheduled. That gap deserves watching.
High-profile relatives can generate sympathy or suspicion, but neither should drive the outcome. Notable arrests involving public figures test whether the system applies the same rules to the connected as it does to everyone else. Mental health struggles are real and deserve compassion. So is a parent's right to know that strangers offering candy and cash to their children at a hotel pool will face the full weight of the law.
Compassion for a family in crisis and accountability for conduct that endangered children are not mutually exclusive, and the courts in Honolulu should make sure they deliver both.
