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ASSOCIATED PRESS
This photo released by the Honolulu Police Department shows Keala K. Simeona. Simeona, a 22-year-old Honolulu woman who police say reported finding a newborn on a beach that was actually her child, is pleading no contest to filing a false police report. Simeona appeared before a judge in district court Thursday to plead no contest. Sentencing on the misdemeanor is scheduled for Jan. 16, 2014. (AP Photo/Honolulu Police Department)
A 22-year-old Honolulu woman who in April reported finding an abandoned baby at Sandy Beach and later revealed that she is the baby’s mother today pleaded no contest to filing a false police report.
Keala Simeona, who appeared in District Court this morning, will be sentenced on the misdemeanor charge on Jan. 16. The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor crime is a jail term of one year. She was released after posting $250 bail.
Initially, Simeona told police on April 28 that she found the baby girl near the water after she heard several people screaming. Simeona took the unclothed baby to Queen’s Medical Center where it was determined that the infant was born about two or three weeks premature and weighed about eight pounds.
After further questioning, police determined that Simeona is the mother of the baby, and she was arrested and charged on April 30 for false reporting. Police had opened cases of abandonment and endangerment of a minor — both felony offenses.
