Former guard caught in American Samoa, returns on rape charge
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
A former guard at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility charged with raping a teenage girl at the facility has been arrested and brought back to Hawai'i from American Samoa.
Li'a "Oli" Olione was indicted by an O'ahu grand jury on Sept. 16 on 10 counts, including sexual assault, kidnapping, terroristic threatening, extortion and criminal solicitation.
The indictment accuses him of sexually assaulting the girl in the facility on June 14 and 15. The girl is between 14 and 16 years old, the indictment said.
The FBI arrested Olione Monday in American Samoa on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
He was brought back to Hawai'i yesterday and arrested on the state charges following an appearance in federal court. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The indictment came less than a month after the American Civil Liberties Union released a scathing report charging rape, brutality and crowded conditions at the Windward facility.
The report was based on interviews with about 70 boys and 20 girls in the separate facilities during visits by the ACLU in June and July.
The indictment said Olione threatened the girl and told her not to report the rape.
Olione also is accused of restraining the girl twice and threatening her.
ACLU legal director Brent White said the indictment was an important first step in addressing the "systemic issues of abuse at the facility." The alleged rape was noted in the ACLU's report, White said.
The report also contained accusations of abuse and sexual assault by guards against wards at the boys' facility.
"We talked to 70 different kids and we got the same guards' names over and over again," White said. "We talked with each of these kids separately and confidentially. It's not a bunch of kids making up something. It's a real problem at the facility and this indictment underscores that reality."
Following the release of the report, Gov. Linda Lingle reassigned Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility administrator Mel Ando and corrections specialist Glenn Yoshimoto. She said the report's conclusions were "too serious to leave the current management in place."
On Sept. 3, the United Public Workers, the union that represents guards at the facility, filed a complaint with the Hawai'i Labor Relations Board to require the ACLU to turn over documents collected during the agency's investigation.
The union said Lingle and state Attorney General Mark Bennett, as well as youth facility administrators, violated terms of the union's labor agreement with the state by allowing the ACLU to do the interviews.
Reach Curtis Lum at 525-8025 or culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.
