Posted on: Saturday, May 21, 2005

Boy, 14, suspect in sex assault at facility

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Police yesterday arrested a 14-year-old boy after his 13-year-old roommate reported being sexually assaulted several times last month at a privately-run group home for youths in Kailua.

The younger boy told investigators earlier this week that the assaults began April 15 and continued through April 28.

Police went to the Hale Holopono group home in Maunawili on Thursday and arrested the 14-year-old on suspicion of seven counts of first-degree sexual assault and three counts of third-degree sexual assault.

The suspect was removed from the facility at that time and placed in a detention home, police said.

The group home is operated by Child & Family Service, a private non-profit agency, under the terms of a contract with the state Department of Health's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division.

Child & Family Service officials said federal privacy laws prevented them from even acknowledging that they house clients at the Maunawili home. They declined to say how long the home has been in operation, the kinds of problems youths who are placed there have and whether there have been any similar incidents at the home in the past.

But Tina Donkervoet, chief of the Health Department's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division, said the group home has operated since 1999, can house up to seven boys and had no vacancies as of earlier this week.

"These are youths with emotional/behavioral problems — problems at school and problems in their natural homes," Donkervoet said.

Without looking through the histories of individual clients at the Maunawili home, Donkervoet said it is very likely that some of the residents have had dealings with the state's juvenile justice system.

She said the court system can order a juvenile to obtain mental health services but cannot order him or her into a particular home or program. Deciding where to place the youth is entirely up to her division within the Department of Health, she said.

Donkervoet said that given the backgrounds of the youths who are assigned to live in group homes, "significant incidents" at the homes are uncommon but not unheard of. She said she had not yet seen a report on the sexual assault allegations.