Cayetano reduces 20-year sentence for caregiver

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

In one of his last acts as governor, Ben Cayetano reduced a 20-year prison sentence to four years for a Waipahu care home operator who was convicted of manslaughter when one of her residents died of neglect.

Cayetano's decision Monday to commute the sentence of Raquel Bermisa means the Hawai'i Paroling Authority must now decide whether to impose a new minimum sentence, order her to serve the full four years or release her.

"I think she has been punished and justice has been done," Cayetano said yesterday.

Bermisa was convicted in the August 1999 death of Chiyeko Tanouye, a 79-year-old resident of her care home. At the time, she was believed to be the first care-home operator in the country convicted of manslaughter for neglecting a client. Tanouye died of septicemia, an infection brought on by advanced decubitus ulcers, commonly known as bed sores.

Bermisa had ignored a doctor's instructions that summer to bring Tanouye in for treatment. Several weeks later, Bermisa finally brought the retired Diamond Bakery clerk to a hospital emergency room, unconscious.

Tanouye died the next day in excruciating pain.

When Bermisa was convicted, prosecutors hailed the verdict and said it would serve as a warning to care home operators that neglecting residents would not be tolerated.

But Cayetano yesterday said the 20-year sentence, which came with a mandatory minimum of six years, eight months, was "too harsh."

"If the point was to drive home a message to all the others in this business, I think that was done," Cayetano said. "She has been in prison now for nearly two years. And she is not a danger to the community."

Cayetano said members of the community, as well as several state legislators, had urged him to reconsider her sentence.

"This was a case of negligence," Cayetano said. "It was not like she went out and murdered somebody. This has been a tremendous lesson to her."

It was the only commutation of a prison sentence in his eight years as governor, Cayetano said.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Parrish, who prosecuted the case, said he was unhappy with the sentence change. He said the attorney general's office was notified about 8:45 a.m. Monday and had only an hour to offer any kind of argument against commuting the sentence.

"We objected strenuously," Parrish said. "I explained what the case was about and told them that our reasons for our objections were that she never unconditionally apologized for what she did."

Parrish said the reduced sentence sends a bad message to the community.

"We are supposed to give extra protection to our elders," he said. "They need our help, and this is a perfect example of someone who took advantage of someone and did great harm to a member of our elder population."

Tommy Johnson, paroles and pardons administrator for the Hawai'i Paroling Authority, said a hearing would be held no later than March to decide how much more time Bermisa must serve. He said Bermisa would have finished serving her sentence in 2021 but would have been eligible for parole in 2007.

Cayetano said he was partly influenced by the way the Bermisa case was handled by her attorneys.

Bermisa originally pleaded guilty to manslaughter in March 2000 — which carried a maximum 20-year sentence — in return for a prosecution promise that the state would seek no more than a year in jail. She withdrew her plea four months later and went to trial after changing attorneys and being told that a medical expert would testify she was not responsible for Tanouye's death. Bermisa was convicted in October 2000.

"As far as I am concerned, people should not be the victims of their lawyers," said Cayetano, a former defense lawyer who tried 30 felony cases. "I think she got bad advice."

Prosecutors should not be disappointed, he said, because they had initially settled for a year behind bars.

"And she should have accepted her responsibility up front and listened to her first lawyer," he said.

Cayetano said he gave his decision considerable thought.

"This was a case where the lady was negligent," he said. "It was a terrible thing that happened, but from a societal point of view, 20 years was much too much."