Kau woman claims
police sexually
assaulted her

2 officers have been placed on
leave during the investigation

---

By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> Two Kau District police officers have been placed on leave while the Hawaii County Police Department investigates allegations that they sexually assaulted a Kau woman in unrelated incidents, the department said.

Kona attorney Robert Kim, who represents the woman, said she was assaulted 70 to 100 times over a six-year period by one of the officers. Some of the attacks took place at the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates police substation, he said.

The officers also burned the victim with cigars and cigarettes, he said.

The woman obtained a temporary restraining order against an officer in August and a hearing was held in Kona District court this week to extend the restraining order, Kim said.

Kim said he doesn't know the identity of the second officer under investigation.

The officer named in the restraining order brought four other officers to the hearing to testify for him, Kim said. During the testimony, the victim said she had sex with those four officers, but it was consensual, he said.

In another matter, police charged the woman with making a false report unrelated to this case. But two of the officers who handled those false-reporting charges also allegedly had sex with the woman, Kim said.

The woman tried some time ago to get Kau District police to investigate her accusations of sexual assault, Kim said.

When they did nothing, she eventually went to Kona police to file charges, he said.