A couple who prosecutors said operated a "house of torture" admitted yesterday to subjecting five children living in their care to two years of physical abuse.

Deputy Prosecutor Lori Wada said Gabriel Kalama, 31, and his wife, Barbara, 28, both of Wai'anae, committed "heinous atrocities" from 2004 to 2006 against children entrusted to their care by the Family Court system.

The victims, all siblings, were the cousins of Barbara Kalama. The Kalamas originally were foster parents to the children and later became their legal guardians, Wada said.

They were taken from the home in 2006 after the Kalamas and Rita Makekau, 51, Barbara Kalama's mother, who lived in the same home, were indicted on charges including assault, child endangerment and abuse of a family member.

Gabriel Kalama pleaded no contest yesterday to two counts of second-degree assault and five counts of abuse of a family member.

Barbara Kalama pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree child endangerment and six counts of abuse of a family member.

Makekau is charged with eight counts of second-degree assault and one count of abuse of a family member and faces a maximum penalty of 81 years in prison, Wada said.

Makekau has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial next month.

"Life was torture" for the children, Wada said. "No child should have to endure the cruelties that these children did."

According to the prosecutor, Gabriel Kalama beat one child with a belt "for jumping on a bed" and forced another child to eat a sibling's feces.

Barbara Kalama "used her fingernails to pinch" the children and also "whacked them on their fingertips with a wooden spoon," Wada said.

The children were told to make the hula hand gesture for a flower, in which the fingertips are held upward and touching, "and she would take the spoon and whack the fingertips," according to Wada.

Wada called Makekau the "worst offender."

Makekau struck the children in the front teeth with a hammer and struck them on the head with the edge of a metal spoon and the dull edge of a knife, causing "cuts, bleeding and scarring," according to the prosecutor.

"She did the wooden spoon thing on the fingertips, too," Wada alleged.

"The children were never taken to a doctor or a dentist until they were finally removed from the house," she said.

STATE NOT ACCOUNTABLE

Amy Tsark, Child Welfare Services branch administrator for the state Department of Human Services, released a statement yesterday saying the children had been removed from the control and supervision of her agency when the abuse occurred.

"Gabriel and Barbara Kalama were appointed as legal guardians of the five children on Sept. 7, 2000, by the Family Court," Tsark said in the statement. "That means the children were not under the care and supervision of Child Welfare Services when the abuse occurred. CWS shares the public's outrage about the maltreatment of these innocent children."

Toni Schwartz, public information officer for DHS, said the children were in state foster care before 2000, but once the Family Court made the Kalamas their guardians, the foster care system was no longer involved. Schwartz said she did not have information on how the children came to be in foster care or what took place before 2000.

Foster care monitors would not make regular or even occasional checks on the children's welfare because the department no longer was involved after 2000.

Schwartz said police were later tipped off to the physical abuse, and the children were removed from the Kalama's custody in February 2005. Police arrested the Kalamas in connection with the abuse cases on April 12, 2006, she said.

The Kalamas' legal guardianship of the children was revoked, and the state was given permanent custody of the children on May 21, 2008. The children, now 18, 17, 15, 13 and 10, are together in a foster family, Schwartz said.

4 OTHER CHILDREN

Court records show that the Kalamas have four children of their own and are raising a fifth child Barbara Kalama had by a previous relationship. Those children were taken into foster care for a day when the Kalamas were first arrested, but were returned to the Kalamas because the couple had no history of abuse or neglect of their own children, Schwartz said.

The Kalamas' biological children remained with them, and the couple agreed to accept state services and state monitoring of the family until the case was closed on June 9, 2008, Schwartz said.

"They had a number of years there that they went through all the services and they were monitored," Schwartz said.

Barbara Kalama filed divorce proceedings last year against Gilbert Kalama but that case was dismissed last month.

Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall set sentencing for the Kalamas for Nov. 24. Both have agreed to testify against Makekau and are seeking sentences of probation from Crandall in return for their admissions of guilt and willingness to testify.

Wada said her office did not enter into a plea agreement with either of the Kalamas and will seek prison time for the defendants.

Staff writer Kevin Dayton contributed to this report.