Rape charges dropped following DNA testing

Advertiser Staff

HILO, Hawai'i — Rape charges filed against an O'ahu man accused of impersonating a police officer and assaulting a Hilo woman were dropped this week as a result of DNA testing.

John Pali Paio Jr., 57, of Pearl City, was due for a preliminary hearing in Hilo District Court, but prosecutors filed court papers dismissing the charges.

Deputy Prosecutor Michael Udovic said a preliminary test indicated that evidence found at the Olona Street apartment where the crime occurred Nov. 11, 2000, was consistent with Paio's DNA, which was on file because he had a third-degree sexual assault conviction on O'ahu.

A subsequent DNA test was done with more definitive results, and there was no match, Udovic said. Paio was released and has returned to O'ahu.

He had been charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault, two firearms offenses and one count each of kidnapping, robbery, burglary, terroristic threatening and false impersonation of a police officer.

The victim reported a man knocked at her door and said he needed to do maintenance in the laundry room. When she refused to let him in, he identified himself as a police officer. When she opened the door to take a look, the man forced his way in, demanded money and raped her at gunpoint, police said.

Police said the investigation will continue.