Teacher’s Two different versions of Wahiawa Middle School social studies teacher Gabriel Kealoha emerged yesterday at the opening of his trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a student last May.
sex assault
trial begins
The popular teacher's attorney
portrays the accuser as a
teenager known for her liesBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comKealoha, 30, was voted Teacher of the Year for 2000-2001 by his peers at Wahiawa Middle School, where he had been teaching since August 1998.
"He was star of the school," said defense attorney Victor Bakke.
Even his students thought he was cool and liked to kick back in his classroom during lunch and recess because he had a stereo and Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 video game consoles.
But his accuser, who was 14 and in the eighth grade at the time of the alleged assault, took the stand yesterday and described being sexually assaulted by Kealoha on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend last year in his portable classroom.
She also described activities that occurred during her year in his class that involved students licking chocolate syrup off girls' necks or abdomen or students bouncing on other students' laps. And she told of incidents where girls wearing too-short shorts getting punished by Kealoha or other students by being squirted on the chest with water guns.
Kealoha, who was suspended with pay in the fall of 2001 following his arrest, went on trial yesterday, charged with three counts each of second-degree and fourth-degree sexual assault.
Deputy Prosecutor Lucianne Khalaf said during opening statements that Kealoha sexually assaulted the girl, then tried to get her to say she lied after he learned that she had told others about the incident.
Bakke said the alleged assault "never happened." He contends the girl is a known liar "who can't keep a story straight" and who at one time got teachers to believe she was dying of a disease.
He said she made up the story because she was unhappy with how things were going in school and did it to get the attention of her parents whom she detested and publicly vilified on her personal Web site.
Bakke said she apparently made up the story about being sexually assaulted so she could be transferred to a school attended by her best friend.
The girl testified yesterday that one of her Wahiawa Middle School classmates had called her at home on May 27, 2002, asking if she wanted to go surfing with her and Kealoha. It wasn't an unusual request because Kealoha frequently took his students out to surf or do other activities outside of school, she said.
On their way home, the girl said, Kealoha told her he had to stop by his classroom to pick up a video he had to return.
In the classroom, Kealoha began touching her and taking off her clothes, she said. She couldn't say anything to him, she said, because "I was getting scared."
But she testified that when he lay her on the futon, "I said no, I had my period." But he continued and sexually assaulted her, she said.
She testified she was too afraid to tell her parents what happened but told at least six friends, including two cousins. She continued going to his class but said she felt "weird" and scared. She said he called her at home during a school break and told her to tell her cousins that she had lied about the incident.
The girl is now 15 and attends high school.