Impromptu toilet leads to jail
A Kaneohe man whose primitive sewage solution brought a charge of felony water pollution has been sentenced to jail, community service and a $5,000 fine.
Graeme Mankelow, 54, was prosecuted by the state Department of the Attorney General after he failed to respond to Department of Health citations for failing to connect his home plumbing to a permitted septic system.
He lived on a houseboat parked on wheels at an oceanfront property in Kaneohe, according to a release from the attorney general. A health inspector found in 2006 that water, human waste and toilet paper from the boat toilet drained into an open pit in the ground.
State law requires a property owner to either hook up to the municipal sewer line or install an approved waste-water disposal system.
Mankelow pleaded guilty in January to water pollution, a Class C felony. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal property damage for damaging a garage on the property, and two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a court order to stay away from places where his former wife lived and worked.
On Wednesday, Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario sentenced Mankelow to five years' probation with two days in jail, 200 hours of community service, a $5,000 fine and $3,958 in restitution.