Poouahi's sentencing postponed

HILO » Sentencing for Hyacinth Poouahi, the Big Island woman who pleaded guilty in May to four charges related to life-threatening injuries to a girl in her care, was postponed yesterday to Feb. 6.

Defense attorney Keith Shigetomi told Judge Glen Hara that a third and final psychological report on Poouahi is still pending.

In February 2005, Poouahi called 911 for medical help for the girl, then 10, who had been abandoned by her mother in Poouahi's care three months earlier.

By then the girl had numerous injuries, including rotting flesh, broken bones, stab wounds and cigarette burn marks. She fell into a coma that lasted six weeks.

Now, several years later, she is still recovering.

In May, Poouahi, 41, agreed to plead guilty to assault and other charges, saying unnamed other people injured the girl and that Poouahi failed to stop them. A police report identified Poouahi's common-law husband, her son and herself as possible perpetrators of the injuries.

The plea agreement allowed Poouahi to avoid a charge of attempted murder.

An earlier psychological report determined that Poouahi has “;borderline mental function,”; meaning she is on the edge of being retarded.

6 charged over military devices

Federal prosecutors charged six paintball enthusiasts yesterday with selling 11 U.S. military night-vision devices for export to Hong Kong for $2,500 each.

The six are Ryan Mathers, Charles Carper, Ronald William Abram, Jason Flegm, Mark Vaught and Brendon Shultz.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court yesterday, Carper sold three ITT Nightquest PVS-14 Gen 3 Night Vision Monoculars to a cooperating defendant on Sept. 24 and Oct. 15 that he received from Mathers. The manufacturer said the devices belong to the Marine Corps.

The night-vision device is a controlled product under the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations administered by the State Department and cannot be exported without a license.

Law enforcement officials arrested Mathers, Abram, Flegm, Vaught and Shultz Tuesday when they showed up at Ala Moana Center to sell eight PVS-14s. Mathers and Abram were there to conduct the sale, and the others were there to act as lookouts, the complaint said. They arrested Carper at his home a short time later.

The manufacturer said five of the devices belong to the Marine Corps, and the other three belong to the Army.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials started investigating Carper after they received information that he had possibly sold PVS-14s on eBay to a person in Hong Kong and to another in Poland.

Isle teachers' pay raise to kick in

Hawaii public school teachers will get their second and final 4 percent pay raise in January as part of a two-year contract ratified in 2007 even though the Education Department has failed to implement a drug-testing program required in the agreement.

The raise will bring the pay for an entry-level teacher with a bachelor's degree to $43,157, up from $39,901, and increase the top teacher salary to $79,197 from $73,197.

Some 13,000 isle teachers got a 4 percent pay raise in July 2007, and most teachers have also been awarded one step up in the pay scale, giving them an additional 3 percent hike.

Education Department spokeswoman Sandy Goya said the state has released money for the final 4 percent raise due in January. Gov. Linda Lingle's administration had threatened to withhold teacher pay raises if the drug tests were not implemented by a deadline last summer.

In July the state filed a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, alleging the Hawaii State Teachers Association breached its contract by failing to launch drug tests on June 30. The teachers union, which says it is ready to conduct reasonable-suspicion drug testing, claims random drug tests would violate teachers' privacy.

A labor board ruling is pending.