Maui officer gets
5 years for trying
to extort sex

The patrolman was convicted
of seeking sex for a traffic stop

WAILUKU >> A former Maui police officer was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison for trying to extort sex from a woman while he was on duty.

Aaron Won, 26, was working as a Lahaina patrolman on July 28 when he stopped the woman, a Mexican national driving on her way to work, and ordered her to have oral sex with him in a secluded police substation in West Maui. The woman refused, and Won arrested her for a traffic violation.

"You went way over the line in what society can accept," Maui Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza told Won. "In the court's view, the nature of the conduct can only be characterized as extreme."

Prosecutor Davelynn Tengan said the victim submitted a letter to the court describing the harm done to her but decided not to testify at the sentencing.

"She's cried enough. She didn't want to cry anymore," Tengan said.

Tengan said the victim asked for Won to receive the maximum sentence and that the police should be held to a higher standard of conduct and should not try to use their power to get sex.

Tengan said her impression was that the victim, who witnessed the court proceedings and cried toward the end of the sentencing, was "relieved that we're done."

A jury found Won guilty on Dec. 17 of two counts of second-degree attempted sexual assault, one count of second-degree attempted extortion and one count of second-degree unlawful imprisonment.

Won faced up to 10 years in prison in each of the second-degree attempted sexual assaults.

Maui County Prosecutor Davelynn Tengan agreed to drop the two attempted sexual assault convictions against Won on March 22 after defense attorney Philip Lowenthal filed a motion to dismiss them because a person cannot be convicted twice for the same crime.

Tengan said her office ran the risk of a retrial if Lowenthal had won on his motion contesting the jury's decision.

The prosecutor said that although the second-degree attempted sexual assault charges carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, she agreed to dismiss them because the net effect would be negligible in the minimum prison term Won might serve.

Tengan said she felt dismissal of the two counts of attempted sexual assault was a "fair disposition" and that the victim felt OK with the prosecutor's decision.

The second-degree attempted extortion charge carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison, which Won received yesterday. He also received a one-year term for the second-degree unlawful imprisonment charge, but that sentence will run concurrently with the five-year term.