School contract artist
Star-Bulletin staff
pleads guilty to molesting
13 girls ages 9 and 10Thirteen girls ages 9 and 10 will be spared going to trial and facing the man who molested them.
Brian Ibaan, a teacher with the Artists in the Schools program, yesterday pleaded guilty to 20 counts of third-degree sexual assault. He was indicted April 15.
He faces up to a 10-year jail term when sentenced Dec. 13 before Circuit Judge John Bryant. He was ordered to remain under house arrest until his sentencing.
His attorney, Jerel Fonseca, was unavailable for comment.
Jury selection was to have begun yesterday afternoon but Ibaan pleaded guilty instead.
"It took a lot of courage for these girls to tell," said deputy prosecutor Thalia Murphy. "They were brave and they spared other potential victims."
Ibaan was charged with touching girls on their breasts in classrooms at Mililani Mauka, Barber's Point and Mauka Lani elementary schools.
The parents did all the right things by reporting the incidents to police and following through. "All were relieved their children didn't have to testify," Murphy said.
The children were experiencing anxiety about going to court. Several children have gone through counseling; others have had nightmares as a result of the incidents, Murphy said.
Ibaan was not a Department of Education employee but was a contracted to teach art under the Artists in the Schools program. The contract was suspended shortly after the accusations went public, said Greg Knudsen, department spokesman.
