Kauaʻi police seek public help finding Richard Leibman in multiple cases

Princeville, ʻAnini and Poʻipū are at the center of a Kauaʻi Police Department alert for 48-year-old Richard Leibman, who is wanted in connection with multiple criminal investigations and is known to frequent those communities.

The County of Kauaʻi posted the notice on April 13 and said police want the public’s help locating Leibman. Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact police immediately and not to try to approach or apprehend him. The warning places the search squarely in neighborhoods where residents, visitors and workers may be able to spot him quickly if he is moving between the North Shore and South Shore.

Leibman is not new to Kauaʻi law enforcement. In February 2019, police arrested him in Princeville after a resident on Aloaliʻi Drive reported seeing a man sleeping beside a home. Police said at the time that Leibman was then 41 and was wanted on three $50,000 bench warrants for revocation or modification of probation. Officers said the arrest happened without incident.

Earlier cases also placed Leibman on the radar in Hawaiʻi. Records and prior reports show he was the subject of a 2014 Kauaʻi fugitive case in Poʻipū. In 2016, Honolulu police captured him outside the Halekulani Hotel after an escape from Hawaii State Hospital, underscoring why officers are treating the current search as a public-safety matter rather than a routine records check.

For Kauaʻi residents, the practical message is direct: keep an eye out in the places police named, especially Princeville, ʻAnini and Poʻipū, and relay any credible tip without confrontation. The current notice ties Leibman to multiple criminal investigations, and police are relying on community awareness to narrow his movements before another encounter turns dangerous.