Sexual 'predator' sentenced to three years
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A 31-year-old Kalihi man who pleaded guilty in October to luring a 14-year-old Oregon girl to Hawai'i in hopes of having sex with her was sentenced in federal court yesterday to three years in prison and three years probation.
Lando Millare, who worked as an assistant at the Kane'ohe Public Library, struck up a relationship with the Medford, Ore., girl on the Internet and worked with her to trick the girl's parents into thinking she was invited to stay at the home of another girl while visiting Hawai'i.
Millare sent the girl a round-trip airplane ticket, traveled to meet her in Los Angeles and escorted her back to Honolulu on June 19 while passing himself off as a 17-year-old boy. Police arrived at a Kalihi home, where Millare lived with his grandparents, about 30 minutes after he arrived there with the girl, preventing him from carrying out his plan.
Michael Weight, federal assistant public defender, told U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway that Millare should be sentenced toward the "lower end" of a federal sentencing guideline that called for a sentence of between 30 and 37 months.
Weight said Millare's friends and family members, several of whom were in court yesterday, are very supportive of him despite "the really bad mistake" he made.
Weight said Millare wants to "atone for his mistake" and "knows he has to pay a price," but he urged Mollway not to order a sentence toward the higher end of the range, which he said is "clearly for sexual predators."
But assistant U.S. attorney Ronald Johnson said Millare had, in fact, become a sexual predator, one who used his "superior intellect" and the Internet to prey upon teenage girls.
Johnson said prosecutors know of at least three other cases in which Millare used Internet chatrooms to approach underage girls.
"This is not an isolated incident based on actions he took in a moment of weakness," Johnson said.
"There is a pattern of activity," Johnson said in asking Mollway to hand out a relatively stiff sentence.
Millare apologized to his friends and family and the girl and her parents. He told Mollway that he was ready to accept his punishment and to serve his time.
In listing her reasons for giving him a sentence that was just one month shy of the maximum called for by the sentencing guidelines, Mollway told Millare that he was attempting to entice juveniles to have sex with him and that the Internet greatly helped him approach the girls.
Millare's actions "pose a very serious threat to children," Mollway said.
In addition to the three-year sentence, Mollway ordered Millare to stay away from computers that have Internet access, to register as a sex offender in the state where he chooses to live when he gets out of prison, to participate in sex offender diagnosis and treatment programs in prison, and to avoid contact with anyone under 18 unless a parent or other adult is present.
