Man, 30, charged with sex assault
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
A 30-year-old West O'ahu man has been charged with first-degree sexual assault for allegedly engaging in sex with an infant girl and videotaping the encounter, police and prosecutors said yesterday.
Danny F. Friddle of Nanakai Gardens was arrested and charged after a woman found the videotape at a Kalihi bus stop, took it home to watch, then turned it over to police.
Police found Friddle's identification as a security guard in the bag and later recognized him as the man on the videotape, a police affidavit said.
The tape graphically shows Friddle repeatedly having sex with an infant girl on two occasions. At one point he is seen smiling and exposes his naked body to the camera.
The 35-year-old woman who found the mini DV videotape and an Ali'i Security Systems identification card with Friddle's name on it Monday night said she took it to her sister's nearby apartment to watch in hopes of finding the owner, the affidavit said.
When she realized what it contained, she turned the tape over to police, according to the affidavit, filed in court yesterday afternoon.
Police obtained a search warrant to view the video and found that it contains evidence of two sexual encounters with an infant.
The first is dated June 25, 2006 and shows about five minutes of a sexual encounter with a girl who appears to be younger than 6 months old. The second encounter is dated Jan. 28, 2007, and lasts about nine minutes. In that segment, Friddle has repeated sexual encounters with an unidentified female who is about 1 year old.
It's not clear from the court documents if the child is the same person in both segments.
Police then interviewed Friddle's ex-wife. She identified him as the man in the video. Police arrested Friddle Wednesday at his Wai'omea Street home.
Police records also show that on Monday, the same day the videotape was found at the bus stop, Friddle reported to police that his Sony laptop computer, a Sony camcorder and a Clearwire modem had been stolen from him in the Kalihi area.
Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
