Wait in halfway house OK'd for abductor dad

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A federal judge yesterday rejected a request by the first person ever convicted in Hawai'i of an international parental kidnapping charge to be released from custody until a spot can be found for him at a federal prison camp on the Mainland.

But Judge David Ezra said he would allow James Anthony Clement to stay at the Miller Hale halfway house for the estimated five to six weeks it will take for the prison camp spot to open.

Clement told Ezra he is claustrophobic and feared being sent to a federal holding facility in San Bernadino, Calif., to wait for a camp opening.

On Dec. 14, Clement was convicted of federal charges of parental kidnapping and passport fraud. He was sentenced by Ezra last week to serve a year and a day in federal prison.

In handing down the sentence, Ezra instructed that Clement be placed in a prison camp so that he can receive the mental health services to help him deal with the anger of having his daughter taken away from him in divorce proceedings almost a decade ago.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo, Clement abducted his daughter, then 2, in 1994 and flew with her to Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Argentina.

But joint efforts by investigators from the State Department and FBI and Argentine officials led to Clement's surrender in 1996.

The girl, who is now 9, lives in California. Ezra urged Clement to work with a California specialist in family law to take the proper legal steps to enable father and daughter to re-establish a relationship.