IN THE COURTS

Expectant mother who used
drugs accepts jail sentence

Judge rejects former firefighter's bid
to alter rape sentences

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- A pregnant woman incarcerated because of her drug use says she feels the judge's decision to keep her in a Maui jail was "fair."

Kelly Curimao, 22, mother of three children, said being in jail will help to keep her off drugs and protect her unborn child.

"Drugs totally change your figuring or view. You're not in your right mind," said Curimao, imprisoned at Maui Community Correctional Center. "It's just not fair for the kids. Sometimes, you more into the drugs than into your kids."

Maui Circuit Judge Shackley Raffetto on Tuesday ordered Curimao to remain in jail for a year or until she gives birth.

Curimao, who is eight months pregnant, tested positive for marijuana, cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.

Raffetto gave her a suspended jail term and placed her on probation in March, after she pleaded no contest to several counts of theft and forgery.

As part of the probation, she is required to remain off drugs and submit to random drug testing.

Curimao said she used crystal methamphetamine and marijuana twice during probation -- actions she now regrets because of the effect it might have upon her unborn child.

She said she had her first daughter at age 13, stopped going to school, and began taking drugs when she was high-school age.

She has three daughters, all from the same father who is paying child support.

Her fourth child is from a boyfriend whom she has been seeing for a year and a half.

Curimao said her family has helped to support her and her children, especially her father who works and also takes care of her daughters.

"I'm thankful for my father for being there," she said.

She said she now realizes she needs to move away from Lahaina, where many of her friends are drug users.

Curimao plans to enroll in a program for welfare mothers that allows her to go to school to earn a high school diploma.

"I've got to better myself to keep my kids in line," she said.

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Judge rejects former
firefighter’s bid to alter
rape sentences

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

A former Honolulu firefighter convicted in a 1986 rape of a young girl has asked that he serve his time concurrently with his sentence in another rape conviction so he will be eligible for sex offender treatment sooner than later.

But Judge Wilfred Watanabe yesterday denied Bingham B. Young's request to reconsider his earlier decision and ordered him to serve two 10-year sentences consecutively.

Because of time already served however, Young will likely only be required to spend 14 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 8-1/2 years set by the parole board.

Young, 52, originally was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in December 1987 for the 1986 rape of a 10-year-old girl at the Kapahulu Fire Station. He was put on probation two years later and has since been granted probation three more times, the last in February 1997, said Deputy Prosecutor Darrell Wong.

But just eight months later, Young was arrested and charged with abducting and sexually assaulting a young girl on the Big Island. He was sentenced to 10 years.

The state moved to revoke his probation and asked that Young serve his sentences consecutively instead of concurrently. The court granted the state's request last March.

Yesterday, Wong repeated earlier arguments that Young is a "sexual predator" and has become even more dangerous to the community than he was 11 years ago because of his unwillingness and inability to comply with terms of his probation.

While Young was undergoing some sex offender treatment, it did not appear to be working, Wong said, citing the Big Island case. "We've done everything we can to try to rehabilitate him and it hasn't worked."

Deputy public defender William Bagasol said Young's previous sex offender treatment apparently had some effect because he let the girl in the Big Island incident go unharmed, confessed to his probation officer and turned himself in to police.

Young, who apologized to the court for what he has done, does not dispute he has to spend time in prison but feels he needs help, not more jail time.

In the 1986 incident, the girl had sprained her fingers playing volleyball at a park and had gone to the nearby Kapahulu Fire Station for help.

Another firefighter put an ice pack on the girl's fingers and she had returned to the park. Young later asked the girl to return to the station where he raped her.

The city awarded a $155,000 out-of-court settlement to the 10-year-old after the family sued the city for negligence. Young resigned from the Fire Department within days of the 1986 incident.