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Women report ‘flashers’
on Maui beaches

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By Gary Kubota
Star-Bulletin

PAIA, Maui -- A "Solidarity Walk" is planned at 5 p.m. Friday along the shoreline near the western end of Paia town to bring attention to men accosting women on the beach and exposing themselves.

Paia resident Joan Parkin said according to female beach-goers she's interviewed, three men have been individually approaching women and masturbating in front of them.

She said since November, at least 30 women have said they have seen the men expose themselves on the shoreline between H.P. Baldwin Beach Park and Paia town.

"The walk will be very peaceful," Parkin said. "It's to bring attention to this issue."

Under state law, persons who exposes their genitals to another person are guilty of misdemeanor sexual assault, if the circumstances are likely to alarm the other person or put them in fear of bodily injury.

The maximum penalty for a misdemeanor conviction is one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Parkin said she's spoken to county lifeguards and the police about the problem, but authorities say they have difficulty catching the men in the act of public lewdness. She said women fear that the public lewdness may encourage some men to prey on women.

Parkin said many women still recall the killing of a homeless woman whose body was found at Baldwin Beach Park on May 24, 2000.

The alleged attacker, Dennis R. Love, homeless and held without bail, is scheduled to face trial on March 27 in Maui Circuit Court on a charge of the second-degree murder and first-degree robbery.

Police Capt. Sydney Kikuchi declined comment but said he planned to speak with Parkin.

Parkin said she became involved in the issue after she herself was accosted by a man in November at Baldwin Beach Park about 3 p.m. She said the man was lying near a tree, masturbating in front of her.

"He started whistling to me," she said. "He was totally exposed."

She said two of the three men are homeless.

They include a man in his 20s who wears braces and long black shorts, a man in his 30s called "Big Boy," and a thin man in his 40s who wears strange clothes and talks to anybody, Parkin said.

Haiku resident Cathy Gaudreau said about three weeks ago, she was at the beach with her boyfriend when she noticed a man masturbating several feet away from her.