A founder of Citizens for Justice, a Big Island group that advocated for victims of high-profile criminal cases, has sued a man who raped her. Rape victim sues
her attackerA man is serving a 10-year term
after pleading guilty in 2001By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comThe suit filed Monday in Circuit Court in Hilo seeks an unspecified amount of money from Claude Krause, who pleaded guilty last year to burglarizing the home of May Apple McCullough and sexually assaulting her during a second burglary.
Krause is serving a 10-year sentence in an Arizona prison for those charges and other crimes.
"May Apple is a fighter," said her attorney Richard Peterson. "She has always fought to seek justice for others; in this case we are seeking justice for her."
The suit seeks punitive damages for "intentional and malicious infliction of emotional distress" resulting from the "brutal, animalistic act committed on her by this man," Peterson said.
McCullough was not publicly identified at the time of the Dec. 19, 2000, attack at her Waawaa home. Peterson said she realized that suing would make the case public.
The Citizens for Justice group was an outspoken critic of the Hawaii County Police Department in the 1990s, pressuring police to find those responsible for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of Dana Ireland and to arrest former police Sgt. Kenneth Mathison for the 1992 death of his wife.
Mathison was convicted in 1994 of kidnapping and murdering his wife in the case, which was originally classified as a traffic accident. Three men were convicted in 1999 and 2000 in the Ireland case.
Hawaii County Police Department
