Man gets probation,
jail for Net sex offense
A 31-year-old Waianae man convicted of using the Internet to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor has been ordered to spend 30 days in jail and five years on probation.
Circuit Judge Michael Town rejected Ciro Kamai's request to defer his guilty plea, saying Kamai could have devastated and stolen the innocence of a young child. Kamai was actually communicating with a law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old.
Kamai pleaded guilty in May to electronic enticement of a minor, one of five people charged under a new law that enables law enforcement to pose as minors on the Internet. He was arrested in November when he went to Ala Moana Center to meet the "girl" he had been e-mailing.
Deputy Attorney General Trish Morikawa had asked that Kamai be sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison to impress upon him the seriousness of his conduct.
Kamai, who has a girlfriend, admitted that he went online looking for a 13-year-old girl to chat with him. He has not told his girlfriend about his arrest because he does not want to hurt anyone else, he said.
"I admit what I did. I would never do it again," he said.
Defense attorney Craig Kimsel said Kamai took responsibility early on and cooperated with the investigation. But he noted that police, not Kamai, initiated contact on the walkway at Ala Moana the day he was arrested, and questioned whether Kamai would have responded had he not been approached.