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STAR-ADVERTISER / OCT. 14, 2014
Michael Tanouye
A Hilo man who tried to rape a woman in the bathroom of a Japan Airlines flight is not guilty by reason of insanity, a judge ruled at a brief trial Wednesday.
The FBI said Michael Tanouye forced his way into the airplane bathroom and attempted to sexually assault a female passenger on Oct. 11, 2014. He also injured another passenger who, along with flight attendants and other passengers, went to help the woman.
While struggling with Tanouye the woman was able to push the bathroom’s emergency button. The woman’s mother, the flight attendants and other passengers tried to open the lavatory door but were unable because Tanouye was blocking the door, a court affidavit said. They had to open the door by removing screws from its hinges.
The plane’s captain turned the plane around and returned to Honolulu following the incident. The airplane had been less than two hours into its flight to Kansai International Airport.
Tanouye doesn’t dispute the FBI’s account of what happened aboard JAL flight 791.
His lawyer Rick Sing presented medical and psychiatric reports prepared by federal prison staff that say Tanouye was suffering from a severe mental disease at the time and is therefore not legally responsible for his actions.
U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson found Tanouye not guilty by reason of insanity and set a hearing for April to determine whether he should remain in custody for the protection of others.
Tanouye has been in custody since his arrest.
The verdict is based on facts that Michael Tanouye’s defense attorney and a prosecutor agreed upon, including conclusions from mental health evaluations.
Not guilty by reason of insanity is “the only reasonable and sensible” verdict, the judge said.
Before the incident, Tanouye was heard shouting something incomprehensible, and his mother told a flight attendant he suffers from depression and is on medication. He stood up to walk around and appeared calm, telling flight attendants he was going to visit his grandmother. Flight attendants agreed not to serve him alcohol because he was on medication.
After the incident, Tanouye’s mother gave him a dose of his medicine and he fell asleep, the affidavit said.
The verdict is the same for a charge that Tanouye assaulted an inmate at Honolulu Federal Detention Center after the plane landed in Honolulu.
Tanouye is expected to go to a North Carolina facility for further mental health evaluations. A hearing will determine whether Tanouye is dangerous.
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Does it really matter to the victim if he knew what he was doing?
He was sane enough to book a flight. Turning the plane around was utter nonsense and a huge waste of meoney and passenger’s time. He was already tied up.
Let him go after a few months of “treatment”. He’ll do it again and again. Society loses every time we let these scum out. Lock em up and throw the key away.
Send this guy one way to join the fruits and nuts in San Francisco?……I’am homeless on the North Shore waiting for the Big Eddie.
Maybe he wanted to be as wet as the surfers?
5th generation Japanese got some serious inbreeding problems, no?
Too much sake?
Your racism is showing again.
Maybe the superfluous “y” in Tanoue’s name finally drove him crazy.
He looks like a Y chromosome.
We need to change the not guilty by reason of insanity to a guilty by reason of insanity. Everyone is responsible for their own actions.
not really
This is outrageous! No woman can feel safe anywhere, not even in a locked bathroom! So he gets off with an insanity plea just like the guy who stabbed a hiker in Koko Head and now is set free. Horrible!
What is insane is the judicial system.
How’s that exactly? Regale us.
duh, do ya think.
But Asian kind is very small. She wouldn’t be able to feel anything that deep.
I don’t think I will ever read the comments on this website again. I feel like I’m losing brain cells just by doing so. Good bye.
Tanouye has more sper m cells than brain cells.
He is insane–anyone who’s ever tried to “do it” in a airline restroom–gotta be really inventive.
Is this seemingly random sampling of words supposed to mean something?
This is why lobotomies should be brought back and made mandatory for criminal insanity.
Hey, forget surgery. Too expensive. Mobs and pitchforks are much cheaper.
As a auto mechanic, I can do it for free with my Snap-On tools.
You know, I’ve always thought Egas Moniz’s Nobel Prize should have been revoked a long time ago. Even by the standards of the 1930s to 1940s his work was of doubtful merit, though I’ll admit his tools and procedure were simple and cheap.
The judge needs to think about this further – This guy is not insane. He knew what he was going to do and knew it was bad. That is why he tried to do it in the bathroom. A true insane man would have just assaulted the woman right in the open (aisle, seat, whatever).
That’s right. Sounds like this crime is based on a premeditated plan.
You people do realize that an insane person is not in control of their mind, right? Yes he can still book a flight and get on an airplane, etc.but something in his mind is triggered that makes him do things he has no control over. I know it’s hard for some of you to understand but he really has no control over what is happening. Turning the plane around is for the safety of the passengers and crew, mainly the flight attendants.
Isolate him in a cell block. He can be as crazy as he wants to.
Are you kidding? These are the same perfect people who daily condemn hikers for getting injured and drivers for getting killed in accidents. It must be splendid not to have to worry that no one they care about would ever have a story written about them and be left to the tender mercies of their peers.
“A hearing will determine whether Tanouye is dangerous.” He assaulted a passenger on a plane and an inmate at the detention center. Obviously he is dangerous. IF “…Tanouye was suffering from a severe mental disease at the time …” it’s only a matter of time before he snaps again and kills someone. Time for a never ending lockup.