Ex-guard guilty in sex assault
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
A former guard at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of sexual assault and one count of terroristic threatening involving a teenage girl who was held in the youth prison last year.
Former youth corrections officer Li'a "Oli" Olione pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement. Deputy Attorney General Kurt Spohn said Olione agreed to a maximum 15-year prison term and agreed to serve at least nine years in prison before he would be eligible for parole.
"By accepting the 15-year plea agreement, Mr. Olione takes full responsibility for his actions in this case," Olione's attorney, David Hayakawa, said.
Olione, 44, quit his job before he was prosecuted. Olione was arrested by the FBI in September in American Samoa.
Spohn said the victim — now 16 and no longer at the facility — was prepared to testify. If the case had gone to trial, a conviction could have ended in a maximum 20-year term.
But the agreement meant "we have the certainty of conviction without the victim having to be traumatized again by the trial," Spohn said. "We want the world to know that this girl was telling the truth."
In August, the American Civil Liberties Union issued a scathing report about the facility, alleging other assaults and abuses. ACLU legal director Lois Perrin said the ACLU "is pleased that justice was done in this case," but remains concerned about conditions at the facility.
She said the guilty plea "confirms that the environment at HYCF did not adequately protect the youths." She said the facility remains understaffed and overcrowded leaving the youths spending much of their time in crowded cells.
State Attorney General Mark Bennett said the state will not tolerate abuse at the facility. "We will vigorously prosecute those who grossly abuse the positions of trust into which they are placed," he said.
HYCF is run by the state Department of Human Services. As of this week, nine girls and 53 boys were at the Kailua facility.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
