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A state judge sentenced karate sensei Michael Shimabukuro to five years in prison Tuesday for sexually molesting one of his students beginning in 2005 when the boy was 12.
Circuit Judge Randal K.O. Lee ordered state sheriff deputies to immediately take Shimabukuro into custody to begin serving his sentence.
Shimabukuro, 34, had been free on $150,000 bail since a jury found him guilty in October of three counts of third-degree sexual assault.
The victim had testified that Shimabukuro sexually assaulted him from 2005 to 2007 at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii in Moiliili, where Shimabukuro leased space for a dojo, and in an adjacent office building. He said he didn’t immediately report the sexual assaults to anyone because he wanted Shimabukuro to continue coaching him.
Another former student testified that Shimabukuro provided his underage students alcohol and pornography, and used a sexual organ size-enhancement device on them during sleepovers at the dojo.
The victim reported the sexual assaults to his parents in 2007.
The boys’ mothers said they and other parents confronted Shimabukuro with the allegations and tried to get Shimabukuro’s mother, another teacher at the school, to intervene. They said they also made sure from then on that a parent was always present whenever Shimabukuro was with students.
The victim’s mother said she finally went to police in 2009 after Shimabukuro kept putting off meeting with the parents to address the allegations.
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