Sex assault suspect indicted
By Debra Barayuga
Star-BulletinA 55-year-old environmentalist accused of videotaping young girls' breasts and buttocks and sexually assaulting them was indicted by an Oahu grand jury.
Stuart Novick of Kalani Valley yesterday was charged with 59 counts, including first-degree child abuse, third-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual assault involving two girls who were then 12 and 13 when the incidents occurred.
He was former project manager for Protect the Planet who recruited youths from local schools to protect and save the environment.
Police are attempting to identify 34 other young girls who also may have been victimized by Novick, said Deputy Prosecutor Susan Won.
The incidents, according to a court document, may have gone as far back as 1992, with victims ranging from age 8 to their teens.
The 20-page indictment includes seven counts of sexual contact with one girl between August 1995 and July 1996 and 39 counts of sexual contact with another girl between June 1995 and May 1996. One of the girls told police Novick had asked her to baby-sit his son when she was in the sixth grade.
Novick was arrested Friday outside his rented Kalanikai Place home as he was attempting to flee to avoid being arrested.
He had called his ex-wife telling her he intended to leave the island because he would be unable to post bail if he was arrested.
The week before his arrest, he held a garage sale in anticipation of being arrested to raise money for bail, Won said.
Just four weeks before his arrest, police searched his home and seized hundreds of videotapes labeled with girls' names and sexually derogatory remarks, pornographic magazines and files of pornographic photographs.
Police began investigating Novick after members of Protect the Planet reported he had been videotaping girls at his home, zooming in on their private areas.
The state argued that Novick is a danger to the community and a flight risk. He is being held on $1 million bail but the state is seeking to have him held without bail until his trial.
