Nanakuli man rejects boys' claims of assault

A Nanakuli man testified in his defense in Circuit Court yesterday, vehemently denying that he sexually assaulted two brothers.

Michael Mars, 28, contradicted testimony this week by the boys, 16 and 12, who said he had sexually assaulted them repeatedly during five months in 2004.

Mars is charged with 14 counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of third-degree sexual assault, felonies punishable by 20 years and five years in prison, respectively. The jury, which received the case late yesterday, was expected to resume deliberating today.

According to Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell, Mars ensured the brothers' silence by threatening to kill them or kick them out of the rooms they were occupying in a six-bedroom apartment owned by Mars' mother.

The boys and their mother had been evicted from their Makaha Surfside home and began living at the Mars' home in April 2004 after Mars told his mother about their plight and she agreed to let them stay.

Deputy public defender Walter Rodby maintained that the boys concocted the allegations because they did not like Mars disciplining them or enforcing household rules, saying he was not their father. The boys only revealed the allegations to deflect their mother's anger for disobeying her, Rodby said.

The boys accused Mars of forcing oral and anal sex on them on at least six occasions, including Aug. 14, 2004, when the older brother was taking a bath.

The boy, then 15, was in the Jacuzzi when Mars allegedly knocked and entered because he needed to use the toilet and could not make it to the upstairs bathroom in time.

Mars testified he was in the bathroom wearing only a towel around his waist for a couple of minutes when he heard the boys' mother pounding on the door looking for her son and unable to get in.

Mars said he walked out of the bathroom, only to be confronted by the boy's mother, who cursed at him and pushed him forcefully, causing him to fall to the ground.

She called police, who arrested Mars after her son told her that Mars had sexually assaulted him while they were in the bathroom together.

The following Monday, the younger boy was refusing to go to school when he suddenly claimed he, too, had been sexually assaulted by Mars. The boy testified this week that he had been afraid to tell his mother earlier because she might get angry or hit him.