‘Mililani rapist’
indictment valid,
judge declares

Man accused of 23 counts
of sexual assault
against 5 girls
will be retried

By Linda Hosek
Star-Bulletin

The state will have to pay $1,500 for a defense witness fee stemming from the mistrial of the alleged "Mililani rapist," but will be able to retry him.

Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe yesterday denied a motion to dismiss the indictment against James Allen Thompson, who is facing 23 counts of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and kidnapping involving five girls ages 14 to 16 last year.

Watanabe rejected the defense claim that Deputy Prosecutor Paul Wong asked Thompson questions calculated to provoke a mistrial.

Myles Breiner, Thompson's attorney, argued that Wong progressed to a question that relied on "nonexistent evidence" to taint the jury. The question was: "Why is there so much pubic hair in your car?"

Watanabe said the question followed others that referred to items received into evidence from Thompson's car. The items included shorts, slippers, knives, paper towels, cigarette butts and the "tape liftings," which showed hair.

Breiner had argued that the court had suppressed hair evidence, specifically hair that was found to be similar to hair from a victim's head.

The hair on the tape was separate and Wong had identified it as "pubic" based on the way it looked.

"It was designed to insinuate that something existed that didn't exist that they should take into consideration," Breiner said.

He also reminded Watanabe that he had rejected Wong's visual analysis of the tape hair during the trial and that Wong had offered no testimony on the hair.

Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata said the hair analysis was suppressed, but not the hair.

Watanabe did grant Breiner's motion for $1,500 to pay the fee of a psychologist prepared to testify during the trial.

"It's only fair," he said. "The mistrial was caused by the prosecutor."

Watanabe declared a mistrial last month after Wong introduced the tape hair without expert evidence to identify it as pubic.

Wong said after the hearing that the jury would have seen the hair on the tape, and that he would present testimony on hair if hair is admissible during the next trial.

"We're happy we still have the opportunity to get justice," Wong said.

During the trial, the five girls identified Thompson as their assailant. Thompson's parents and a friend testified that Thompson was with them at the time of three of the incidents, which occurred in the Mililani area from January to September 1997.