Ex-teacher guilty of child pornography charges
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A former Waiau Elementary School teacher faces a likely prison term of two to three years, and a maximum term of five years, after pleading guilty in federal court yesterday to possession of child pornography.
Keith K. Akana, 45, told federal Judge Susan Mollway that he had child pornography images on his home computer when U.S. Customs Service agents went to his Pearl City home April 13 to question him about the matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Tong told Mollway that if Akana's case went to trial, the government would produce evidence showing that Akana had a computer file containing 17 pictures of children under age 18 engaged in sexual activity. In addition, another 400 images, many of them involving children younger than 12, were retrieved from the hard drive in Akana's computer.
Authorities do not believe that Akana produced any of the images himself or that they involved any of the students at the school where he taught.
Akana acknowledged that he knew about some of the images but that others may have wound up in his computer unintentionally when he "unzipped" computer files sent to him by others. He admitted visiting Internet chat rooms that featured discussions about child pornography and trading images with others who visited the site.
Tong told Mollway that a Customs Service investigation on the Mainland of a man suspected of trading child pornography images on the Internet turned up a "buddy list" that included a screen name that was tracked back to Akana.
Investigators then questioned Akana's Internet service provider, America Online, to try to get a list of Internet sites Akana had visited with his computer and to look at e-mail messages he sent, Tong said. Three e-mail messages on April 13 were sent to individuals with whom Akana sought to exchange images of minors engaged in sexual activity, Tong said.
Akana said after the hearing that he doubts he will ever be allowed to teach again in Hawai'i's public school system.
"I apologize to everyone for the embarrassment and the pain I have caused," Akana said.
Mollway allowed him to remain free on bail while awaiting sentencing.
