Camp leader a sex offender
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — State rules that permit some youth camps to operate without regulation allowed a convicted sex offender to run a summer camp on Maui for several years.
Aloha Adventure Camps, which leased the Girl Scout Council of Hawai'i's Camp Pi'iholo in Makawao, was closed July 7 because of insurance problems. Since then The Advertiser has learned that Aloha Adventure owner and director Raymond L. Thomas, who used the name Llew Lazarus in connection with the camp, has three convictions in California for sexual crimes involving children, according to court records and that state's sex-offender registry.
None of the campers or parents who spoke to The Advertiser about Aloha Adventure Camps have alleged sexual abuse. Police are investigating Thomas' background, but officials said there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Records of the Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center show no convictions for Thomas in the state.
Officials, parents and The Advertiser have not been able to contact Thomas, who also used the name Llew Thomas, since the camp closed.
The state Office of Consumer Protection is investigating numerous complaints filed by parents who paid $1,150 a week to send their children to the camp, which offered five weekly sessions running from June 29 through Aug. 3.
During the first week, a camp counselor filed a police report alleging sexually inappropriate remarks by Thomas. In the subsequent turmoil, Thomas ordered the children to go home.
It is estimated that more than 100 families from the United States and other countries had registered for the camp this summer. About 36 children ages 10 to 17 attended the first week of camp before it was closed.
Thomas had been operating the camp for several years, and Aloha Adventure Camps was accredited by the American Camping Association in 2000.
State Department of Human Services regulations require preschools, after-school programs and similar operations in Hawai'i to undergo licensing if they operate for more than two consecutive weeks. As part of the licensing requirement, childcare employees must undergo criminal history checks done by the department using fingerprints. The employees also are checked for reports of child abuse and neglect.
Rules didn't apply
However, "specialty" camps are exempt from the licensing requirements. These include sports, music, drama, language and other special-interest camps.
Aloha Adventure Camps billed itself as a photography and surfing camp, and likely would have qualified for the exemption, said Garry Kemp, assistant administrator for the Benefit, Employment Support Services Division of DHS.
Kemp said the department was unaware that Aloha Adventure Camps was in existence. "Quite a lot of people open a camp and don't tell us they're doing it. We find out about it after they open," he said. "They don't tell anyone that they're doing it."
Licensing regulations essentially are aimed at protecting the health and safety of children up to age 12 who need care in their parents' absence, Kemp said. Older children generally are enrolled in recreational programs that are not conducted in licensed childcare settings, he said.
State Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, D-13th (Kalihi, Nu'uanu), said she was unaware of the childcare licensing exemption for specialty camps. Oakland, who is active in family issues through her involvement in the Keiki Caucus, said she would like to explore the issue further to see if additional rules are necessary for anyone involved in the direct supervision of children.
With the exemption from licensing regulations, Aloha Adventure Camps was not subject to scrutiny. Neither was Thomas' background.
According to a felony complaint filed Jan. 7, 1991, in Victorville Superior Court in San Bernardino County, Thomas, 49, was charged with six sex crimes alleged to have occurred from 1988 to 1990. Four counts involve lewd and lascivious acts, including sodomy, on a girl who was 6 at the time of the earliest offense.
Two charges involve sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl and using her for the purpose of making sexual photos or videos.
Court records show that Thomas pleaded no contest to one of the charges involving the younger girl and the two charges involving the 15-year-old. Prosecutors dropped the remaining counts as part of a plea agreement.
Sent to prison — twice
Thomas was sentenced April 12, 1991, to six years and eight months in prison, with credit for the nearly six months he had spent in jail before sentencing.
According to the California Department of Corrections, Thomas was paroled July 16, 1994, but was returned to prison Nov. 29, 1995, for an apparent parole violation. He was paroled again May 19, 1996.
As a convicted sex offender, Thomas is required to report any change in address. It is not known if he registered as a sex offender in Hawai'i because the list is no longer available to the public.
The Hawai'i Supreme Court in 2001 ruled unconstitutional Hawai'i's version of "Megan's Law." The law is named after 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender who lived nearby. The court said the law violated an offender's right to due process by not providing for hearings to determine whether the offender is a danger to society.
This fall's ballot will include a constitutional amendment that would re-establish public access to information on sex offenders, with limits to be determined by lawmakers.
Parents and campers involved with Aloha Adventure Camps in previous years said they were happy with the experience. But this year, the camp was "chaotic and disorganized," said Susan Goldberg of Sherman Oaks, Calif., who paid $3,780, including a discount for early payment, for her 14-year-old daughter to attend for four weeks.
Goldberg said her daughter had a great time at the camp last year. "Every time she called me she was laughing and she was so happy," Goldberg said. This year, "the minute she got there, she said there were really bad vibes."
The program began to fall apart after Thomas allegedly made sexually inappropriate remarks to a male camper about some of the female campers. Some counselors and campers became upset, and on July 6 Thomas ordered the children to go home, even though some had paid for more than one week.
Thomas told The Advertiser on July 6 that the situation was the result of a "misunderstanding" about comments made by a staff member.
Girl Scout Council of Hawai'i Executive Director Gail Mukaihata Hannemann flew to Maui July 7 to investigate the complaints. She said she closed the camp when she discovered that Thomas had falsified insurance documents.
Most of the campers flew home immediately, but 16 youths were taken into temporary state custody until travel arrangements could be made. The state had to contact another 80 families to tell them not to send their children to the camp.
The incorporation papers that Thomas filed with the state have been questioned by at least one person who was listed as an officer in the enterprise.
The camp's Web site stated that Aloha Adventure Camps was part of the nonprofit Hawaiian Cultural Preservation Association. In the incorporation papers for the association, Thomas named himself as president and director and listed three other individuals as fellow officers and directors.
Parents 'misled'
One of those individuals, Alvaro Ferreira, said last week that he had met Thomas on a handful of occasions at American Camping Association events and discussed camp operations with him. Ferreira said he had no idea Thomas had used his name for the incorporation papers.
Ferreira said he has been associated for 24 years with YMCA camps in California and Florida. He said he has spoken with the two other individuals who were listed as officers of the Hawaiian Cultural Preservation Association, and that they also were unaware Thomas had used their names.
"Our names were hijacked by Aloha Adventure Camps. I'm shocked," Ferreira said from his home near Tallahassee, Fla. "You meet people in camping and you put your good faith in them that they are good and honest people."
Parents who were upset that their children's summer was ruined and that they might not get their money back are now dealing with the news that they unknowingly put their children in the care of a convicted sex offender. They also are angry that Thomas was able to obtain accreditation from the American Camping Association.
"The American Camping Association, by putting their seal of approval on this camp, has misled parents," said Los Angeles parent Cris Armenta.
Armenta's 14-year-old daughter had signed up for her third summer at the camp this year. "For our part, our daughter had very good experiences at the camp. But it's very disturbing that someone who is a registered sex offender could become the owner and director of the camp without parents finding out about that," she said.
Armenta said she specifically asked Thomas if the staff had undergone fingerprint checks and he told her yes. "I would not have sent my daughter there if I'd known that the staff was not being fingerprinted, including him," she said.
The nonprofit American Camping Association has 300 accreditation standards, and camps are required to file annual compliance reports. Site inspections are conducted every three years, and one was done at the Maui camp in 2003, according to the American Camping Association.
One of the standards for staff-screening requires criminal background checks, reference checks, and interviews for workers who will have responsibility for or access to campers.
American Camping Association executive director Peg Smith said the association is still reviewing Aloha Adventure Camps' records and attempting to verify Thomas' background. Since the camp was accredited, she said she assumes Thomas submitted documents showing he met the hiring and screening standards.
Smith noted that accreditation is voluntary, and that the ACA's main mission is to educate camp owners about quality standards and to provide support. It is not involved in regulation or enforcement, she said.
She said background checks are difficult to conduct because limited information is available to non-law enforcement groups and rules vary from state to state. For example, the sex-offender registry is open in California but not in Hawai'i.
"If he was using an alias or a different Social Security number, it would have gone through and it would have cleared," she said.
"In any system if someone is being untruthful, we're all vulnerable."
As a parent and professional, Smith said she is very troubled by the complaints against Aloha Adventure Camps.
"If these allegations are true, it's so rare that someone so grossly abuses the systems that are put in place to protect children," she said.
Smith said accreditation is "one good piece of evidence" of a camp's reputation, but parents also need to talk with the director, check references, review state regulations and practice "due diligence" in selecting a camp. "And even at that, I don't have assurances as a parent."
Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
