Prosecutor says rapist
targeted teen-age girls

But the defense claims James Thompson
is just a scapegoat

Bu Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

The 14-year-old Radford High School girl and her friend had just eaten at a Burger King last Sept. 7. Before they split up to walk home, her friend told her to "watch out for the rapist."

Shortly later, a man with a knife forced her into his car, drove her into a pineapple field in the Mililani area, told her to take off her clothes, and then made her perform oral sex with him after she refused to let him enter her vagina.

In opening statements today, Deputy Prosecutor Paul Wong told jurors that James Allen Thompson was the man who sexually assaulted the girl.

Thompson is also accused of sexual assault, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault connected to four other girls, all 14-16, between January and September 1997 in the Mililani area.

Wong said four victims had identified Thompson, 38 and married with a child, in police lineups, and the fifth identified his photo. All five are scheduled to testify against Thompson.

Defense attorney Myles Breiner told jurors that Thompson had been a scapegoat. Breiner said police had 19 other suspects before Thompson. "After his arrest, something extraordinary happened," Breiner said.

Thompson's photo was released to the media and police told the public that "we've caught the Mililani rapist . . . to allay public fear in the Mililani area."

Breiner said the five girls misidentified Thompson.

Four other sex assault victims in the same area and time did not identify Thompson in the lineup, which Breiner said had no other suspects that looked like Thompson.

"Traumatized witnesses are not the best witnesses," Breiner said.

Breiner said Thompson has witnesses who will testify he was elsewhere during the crimes.

Breiner also will present expert testimony that there is a 100 percent chance the one DNA sample taken in the cases could match the DNA of other men in Oahu.

Wong said Thompson's car and license plate matched information victims gave to police. Police also took other items from his home and car that matched descriptions given by the girls.

Thompson faces possible life in jail if he is convicted, Wong said.