Former prison guard
pleads guilty to assault
A former prison guard pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of sexual assault and one count of terroristic threatening for assaulting a teenage girl at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.
Former youth corrections officer Li'a Olione pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree and one count of third-degree sexual assault, and terroristic threatening. He agreed to a sentence of 15 years in prison and will be eligible for parole after nine years.
He will be sentenced July 20.
Olione agreed to serve concurrent sentences for the sexual assaults plus a consecutive five-year term for the terroristic threatening.
A state grand jury indicted Olione Sept. 16 on 10 charges for allegedly assaulting the teenage girl four times in June at the youth correctional center in Kailua. He was also charged for allegedly holding the girl against her will and threatening her.
Olione originally faced charges including three counts of kidnapping, four counts of first- and third-degree sexual assault, terroristic threatening, extortion and criminal solicitation.
FBI agents tracked Olione to American Samoa last fall. Investigators said Olione traveled to Samoa in July with his family just after the state attorney general's office began investigating the allegations.
In September, Gov. Linda Lingle replaced top management at the youth facility and ordered an investigation into allegations from the American Civil Liberties Union that guards were terrorizing male and female inmates. The ACLU interviewed 70 teens in the course of compiling a scathing report about conditions at the facility.
ACLU Legal Director Lois Perrin said: "We are pleased that justice was done in this case. But this case is only one of a number of alleged assaults that took place."
Perrin said "this guilty plea only confirms that the environment did not adequately protect youth" at the facility.
Perrin said that while physical and sexual abuses are key problems, the ACLU is also concerned about overcrowding, limitations on phone calls and visitations, and other conditions.