Morgue contractor suing Maui police for alleged unpaid bills after Lahaina fire

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – HNN Investigates has new developments in a dispute between a morgue contractor and the Maui Police Department.
We’ve confirmed the owner of Grey Tech LLC is now suing MPD over claims the company’s owed more than a quarter million dollars for services provided following the Lahaina disaster. This comes after MPD said it opened an investigation into the contractor.
Grey Tech owner Greyson Abarra is now represented by high-profile attorney Michael Green.
Up until now, Green had chosen to stay out lawsuits involving the Lahaina fire. But he said for this case, he decided to make an exception.
“This guy had a real ongoing business and he was successful, and they’re trying to put him out of business,” Green said.
When HNN Investigates asked Green why he thought that, he responded, “I believe it’s a cover-up and I believe they wish he’d go away. Because things are going to come out. And they’re not going to want to stand there and have people question them about it.”
For 12 years, Abarra was contracted by the Maui Police Department to provide postmortem care for the island’s departed.
In the hours after fire leveled Lahaina town, MPD called his company into action.
He says a deputy chief — who is second in command of the department — gave him a verbal OK to bring in additional manpower to assist his 14-person team with the recovery and transport of human remains.
Now, Abarra says the department is refusing to pay for all the work it asked his company to perform.
He says MPD told him, “Any volunteers — which we had a lot of: our retired fire department personnel, captains, hazmat captains, drivers, come forward to assist. They’re ineligible for reimbursement.”
Abarra says while the 32 volunteers donated their time, the department is refusing to pay for the services they helped his company provide — as well as expenses that were incurred for things like hotel rooms and food.
“Everything that was supposed to be federally covered,” Abarra explained.
He says MPD never amended his contract despite records showing he repeatedly asked them to.
In February, Abarra sent an email to MPD leadership stating, “I need to have something in writing as services outside my current contract are still being requested and provided.”
“When someone says we need you to do A, B, C and D — as a contract. There’s no written agreement. And the person performs. Then they got a problem,” Green said. “This is basically a breach of contract to me. And he’s owed almost $280,000.”
In June, the Maui Police Department terminated its contract with Grey Tech LLC citing the convenience clause, a contractual provision that allows one party to terminate the agreement without cause or penalty.
Then, in a letter dated Oct. 21, the Maui Police Department denied owing Abarra any money, saying, “The County of Maui Department of Finance, on behalf of the Maui Police Department, paid Grey Tech LLC approximately $135,224.03 for work performed under contract for fiscal year 2024 and related to the related to the 2023 fires, i.e., body transport.”
The letter went on to say, “The county is confident Grey Tech has been paid in full,” adding Abarra has not established he’s entitled to an additional $150,000 in FEMA related funding.
To that Green said, “If they want to dig in, we got just as big a shovel as they do.”
This wouldn’t be the first time MPD failed to pay its bills on time. Abarra says he went eight months without compensation for services he provided between July 2023 and February 2024.
In an email, MPD said the payment was delayed due to non-compliance issues.
When we asked Abarra about the department’s claim, he denied it, saying once he filed a complaint with the state Ombudsman’s office, the department cut him a check.
We asked Maui Police Chief John Pelletier to discuss the issue in an on-camera interview. Instead, MPD spokesperson Alana Pico told us, “In June 2024, the Maui Police Department launched a criminal misconduct investigation (into Abarra’s company) regarding fraudulent billing.”
Abarra says the department has yet to tell him his company is under investigation.
Green said, “When I heard that I spoke to him about it, and he actually started laughing. Not that he thought it funny to be under investigation. But to try and make him into something he’s not — to cover up for your own misdeeds or wrongdoing.”
In the days following the disaster, Abarra says he went to MPD leadership with concerns that protocols for the respectful and accurate recovery of victims were not being followed. Statements recently made by MPD now confirm Abarra’s claims.
Green says he hopes to have the lawsuit filed in the next couple of weeks, saying “he plans to name everyone who’s responsible.”
Here is the full statement MPD sent to HNN Investigates on the criminal misconduct investigation:
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