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Tenants Claim Landlord Used Them In Experiments

Tenants Escaped Collapsing Building

POSTED: 5:50 pm HST October 27, 2008
UPDATED: 9:23 pm HST October 27, 2008

Dozens of Kalihi tenants who escaped the collapse of their make-shift apartment building Sunday night said the landlord subjected them to more than just unsafe living conditions.

They said they were human guinea pigs for his medical experiments.

The multi-story metal pipe scaffold that tumbled into Kalihi Stream Sunday night was on the verge of city foreclosure after Landlord Daniel Cunningham accumulated thousands in building fines. He protested as police blocked the entrance Sunday night.

"For what I've tried to do for these people it's very hurtful," Cunningham, said.

On Monday, Cunningham's tenants collected their things and were resting at a Red Cross Shelter at Kalihi District Park. Many said Cunningham kept deposits and disputed complaints they documented with these pictures.

A frustrated neighbor said the city should have condemned the property long ago.

"It's not right. The way it exists, it's not safe. It should be down. There are way too many people," neighbor Jay Young said.

Several tenants said Cunningham forced them to be subjects of his medical experiments.

Former tenant Richard Sumiye had to be helped to shelter. He said Cunningham used a needle to inject a solution around his eyes.

"So I got blind because of Daniel Cunningham because of what he did to me," Sumiye said.

Former tenant Jesse Taylor said he and others accepted the injections because they feared eviction.

"We were in pain. We were desperate and he took advantage of that," Taylor said.

Cunningham lost his chiropractor's license in 1996 for injecting patients. He recently claimed to have invented a stem cell treatment to extend life indefinitely.

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