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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, August 30, 2008

Trauma of sexual assault described in court

Photo gallery: Yoshinaka sentencing

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Darin Yoshinaka was led away, escorted by his attorney, David Hayakawa, right, after being sentenced for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old student.

BRUCE ASATO | The Honolulu Advertiser

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A seventh-grade girl sexually assaulted by a man who had been her volleyball coach at Maryknoll School last year suffered terrible emotional and psychological damage that could last a lifetime, the victim's mother told the attacker in emotional court testimony yesterday.

"Darin, I have so much anger and animosity towards you," the mother said to defendant Darin Yoshinaka.

"You are a predator, a pedophile," she said.

She asked Circuit Judge Richard Pollack to sentence Yoshinaka to 18 months in prison, the maximum time allowed under a plea agreement the defendant reached with prosecutors in June.

Pollack agreed, telling Yoshinaka that his crimes "had a devastating effect" on his victim.

"She is serving her own painful sentence," the mother said.

The victim had to change schools because of gossip and social stigma arising from what was done to her, the mother said.

The damaging effects of Yoshinaka's crimes, the mother said, include "fear, anger, depression, isolation, betrayal, guilt, suicide and other self-destructive behavior."

Still, the girl's mother, and Pollack, praised her for having the courage to step forward and report what Yoshinaka had done to her.

"One of the first things she said to me was, 'Mom, I don't want this to happen to anyone else,' " the mother said.

The victim was 13 years old and a member of the school intermediate volleyball team when she met Yoshinaka last year.

Yoshinaka's contract as an assistant coach for the Maryknoll varsity volleyball team expired Oct. 11, 2007. He assisted with the intermediate team after the varsity season ended.

Yoshinaka, who was 28 years old at the time, befriended the victim, calling and text-messaging her first about volleyball, then school-related topics, and then personal information, court records show.

Last November, Yoshinaka asked to visit the girl at home on a Saturday when her parents were at work. She gave him her home address and he assaulted her that day in her home, according to court records.

The victim confided to a friend what had happened to her, but did not tell her parents.

In January, Yoshinaka offered to tutor the student, who had been struggling in school. He met her at a local library, walked with her to a nearby elementary school and "subjected her to acts of sexual contact" in a stairwell at the school, according to court records.

The girl then told her mother what Yoshinaka had done to her.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sex assault and seven counts of third-degree sex assault.

Yoshinaka said yesterday, "I deeply want to apologize to (the victim) and her family. I take full responsibility for my actions."

His lawyer, David Hayakawa, asked Pollack to sentence Yoshinaka to six to nine months in prison, saying his client had no previous criminal record. Yoshinaka will undergo "an extremely extensive and strict" sex offender treatment program and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, Hayakawa said.

"There is a very strong likelihood that he will not reoffend," the lawyer said.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott Bell asked Pollack for the full 18-month sentence, saying that his crimes had "calamitous consequences" for the victim and her family.

"No words of contrition can restore (the victim) to what she was before," Bell said.

Bell noted that the victim and her family had agreed to the plea deal reached with Yoshinaka.

The victim's mother said, "The plea agreement was an extremely difficult decision."

But the family ultimately approved the deal because they "could not put our daughter through more pain" in a public trial, she said.

After completing his prison sentence, Yoshinaka must serve five years of probation, complete sex offender treatment and pay restitution to the victim and her family.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.