A woman who calls herself the "Royal Minister of Foreign Affairs" for the sovereignty group Hawaiian Kingdom Government has pleaded no contest to eight counts of assaulting children in what prosecutors called a "house of torture."

Rita Makekau, 52, quietly entered the no-contest pleas Friday in Circuit Court but said yesterday she plans to appeal on the grounds that state courts don't have jurisdiction over her.

Deputy Prosecutor Lori Wada had earlier called Makekau "the worst offender" of three defendants charged with committing "heinous atrocities" against five children.

Wada said Makekau struck the children in the teeth with a hammer, breaking and chipping their teeth. She also struck them in the head with a wooden spoon and with a kitchen knife, causing "cuts, bleeding and scarring."

A boy was regularly forced to sleep under the Leeward Coast house "with the dogs," according to court files.

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

Makekau's co-defendants, Gabriel Kalama, 31, and his wife Barbara Kalama, 28, pleaded no contest in August to charges including second-degree assault, abuse of a family member and child endangerment.

The victims, all siblings, were cousins of Barbara Kalama and nieces and nephews of Makekau.

The Kalamas originally acted as foster parents of the children but became their legal guardians in September 2000. The abuses occurred from 2004 to 2006, according to court records.

"The children were never taken to a doctor or a dentist until they were finally removed from the house" by state officials in February 2005, Wada said.

According to court files, the Kalamas and Makekau sometimes fed the children dog food sprinkled with hot sauce. Sometimes they were fed leftovers from meals eaten by the Kalamas and their own four biological children.

Court files show that police learned of the abuse after one of the children told a friend at school what was happening to him.

The children, now 18, 17, 15, 13 and 10, are living together with a foster family and are reportedly doing well.

Makekau said yesterday she has reached an agreement with prosecutors to serve five years in prison — if she loses her claim that the courts have no jurisdiction over her.

Jim Fulton, executive assistant to city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, said the plea agreement calls for Makekau to be sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison. The state could seek as much as 41 years in prison, he said.

Makekau was interviewed on the grounds of 'Iolani Palace, where members of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government have been daily protesting the authority of state and federal government in the Islands. Makekau calls herself "her Highness Rita Kulamika Makekau, Royal Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Hawaiian Kingdom Government."

The group began its protest in May and is not affiliated with another Hawaiian rights organization that occupied 'Iolani Palace briefly on Statehood Day in August.

Makekau said she is not admitting guilt in the abuse case but entered the no-contest pleas out of concern for the children she's accused of abusing.

"I was thinking of the children," she said yesterday.

If the case went to trial, the children would have been called to testify against her in court, she said.

"I didn't want that. I didn't want them to have to relive the past," she said.

Fulton also pointed out that the presiding judge in the case, Virginia Crandall, has already rejected Makekau's claims that she is not subject to the jurisdiction state courts.

Makekau is free to appeal that decision to a higher court, he said.

Makekau and the Kalamas are to be sentenced by Crandall on Nov. 24.

In an affidavit filed in the case in February, Makekau said, "I'm an official of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government, I'm a Kanaka Maoli and I'm under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government law."

"I believe the State of Hawai'i, Inc., has no judicial precedence nor Hawaiian usage over me," the affidavit said.

Yesterday, Makekau said the criminal case has not affected her status as foreign minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government.

"I haven't been convicted," she said.