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Molestation case
victims still vulnerable

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By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

A guilty plea by a 36-year-old military police officer charged with sexually molesting two minor girls -- one of them continuously over a two-year period -- vindicates the victims, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo.

But while William George Hayes II's change of plea in U.S. District Court on Thursday may have spared the victims the trauma of having to face their attacker in court, it does not end their suffering, Kubo said.

The girls experienced much emotional pain when it was reported Hayes had been indicted. Victims in these types of crimes can undergo massive emotional trauma and embarrassment in public, Kubo said.

"We never walk away satisfied from these cases," said Kubo. "We walk away hoping the victims can have as close to normal lives as they can ... It's always a concern on my part about how the victims will carry on in their lives and how long this will affect them."

Various police agencies also continue to investigate similar allegations of molestation by Hayes where he previously served in Germany, Wisconsin and South Carolina.

Federal prosecutors could only charge him with incidents that happened in Hawaii, Kubo said.

The case shows how susceptible children can be to molestation by people in trustworthy positions, such as being a police officer, and how adults can easily use their positions of authority to further the molestation, Kubo said.

It is also one of the few cases he has seen where a wife was also prosecuted for her husband's sexual crimes.

In the overwhelming number of sexual molestation cases, the offender is charged but the other parent is not charged, he said.

Hayes and his wife Janice were both indicted by a federal grand jury last February.

William Hayes pleaded guilty as charged Thursday to two counts of sexually molesting the two girls, then ages 14 and 15, at his Schofield Barracks home. He will be sentenced April 30.

Janice Hayes, 35, provided false statements to federal investigators about the molestations. She pleaded guilty in October and could face up to five years in prison when sentenced Feb. 20.

Kubo said the government chose to prosecute her because her obstruction was so "aggravating" that a statement needed to be made that people's responsibilities to children should far outweigh any hope of protecting the offender.

At a hearing Thursday, William Hayes admitted having sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old between January 1997 and February 1999. He also admitted to using a finger to penetrate the 15-year-old about September 1997 when she was sleeping over at the Hayes' house.

The 14-year-old girl claimed he had molested her almost daily during the two-year period, Kubo said. She repeatedly complained to Janice Hayes about the molestations. She also reported that Hayes had walked in on them during one of the attacks, Kubo said.

Janice Hayes adamantly denied she witnessed any of the attacks by her husband, said her attorney Lane Takahashi. At her change of plea hearing, she also denied that the victims or anyone had told her that her husband was molesting the girls.

But she took active steps to hamper investigators in their investigation against her husband, Kubo said.

Hayes told her children not to say anything, that it was their family's business and it would be taken care of in-house.

She tried to persuade one of the victims to withdraw the complaint. She told the other victim to "forgive and forget" and told the girl's parents that her husband would get help.

Another girl came forward in 1997, according to court documents, but Janice Hayes talked her into withdrawing her complaint.

Also during the investigation, a mainland relative who alleged being molested by William Hayes reported she also received a note from Janice Hayes saying she should "forgive and forget and move on with her life," Kubo said.

Takahashi said Hayes admitted to lying to investigators, but her intentions were good at the time. "In her own mind, she chose to protect her family."

Coming from a dysfunctional background and undergoing psychiatric care, she was doing what she thought she needed to do, Takahashi said.

Kubo said it appeared Janice Hayes did not want the molestations reported because her husband's arrest would have caused a financial blow to the family.