Relations with girl admitted in court
Eugene Saulibio is accused of sexually assaulting a woman when she was 14
LIHUE » The sex-assault trial of Eugene Saulibio, who was sexually abused by a priest, started yesterday with the admission that Saulibio had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl.
The girl, who visited Kauai in 1996, is now 24. She accused Saulibio, 45, of forced sexual assault.
But lawyers for Saulibio, who was 15 when he was molested by Catholic priest Joseph Bukoski III, said the Aiea man and father of three had a consensual relationship with the alleged victim. The relationship, however, never involved intercourse.
"He never forced her to do anything," said Saulibio's lawyer, Victor Bakke. "Was she an adult? No. But there was nothing illegal" about the consensual relationship.
During opening arguments, Prosecutor Jennifer Winn said police set up a call between the alleged victim, now living in Oregon, and Saulibio last year after the accuser came forward.
In the call, Winn said, Saulibio told her, "This creep of a priest did to me, and I did it to someone else."
He also apologized and admitted, "What I did was really wrong," Winn said.
The tape of the conversation will be played during the weeklong trial, she said.
Saulibio, who was married and had a son at the time of the incident, admitted that having the relationship was not proper.
But, Bakke said, the alleged victim accepted gifts from Saulibio, and kept a pair of his boxer shorts and a love letter for nearly a decade. She also wore a necklace Saulibio purchased for her in her ninth-grade school photo, which was shown to the jury.
Bakke said the only reason the woman came forward was that Saulibio was in the news for settling lawsuits against the Catholic Church.
In November 2005, Saulibio received an apology from former priest Bukoski, who, Saulibio said, plied him with alcohol, waited until he passed out and then sexually assaulted him in 1976. He also received a monetary award.
Winn agreed that it was the publicity that made the girl come forward. But, when she found the articles about him online and found he had started a survivors network for victims, she was angry and believed she needed to come forward.
"She didn't understand until she was an adult that what he did was wrong," Winn said.
Saulibio is charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault for four separate incidents over a monthlong vacation the alleged victim spent on Kauai.
The woman described Saulibio as "everybody's favorite uncle," and said she first admired him.
But, while she was sleeping in a room with Saulibio's cousins, the then 35-year-old would carry her into his room and touch her and try to have sex with her, she said.