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The former executive director of an organization that encourages people to adopt foster children has been charged with sexual assault involving two girls.
Louis A. Martinez, 38, was charged July 3 with first-degree attempted sexual assault involving a girl who was 11 at the time. That assault allegedly occurred in July 2011.
In May 2013 Martinez was charged with two felony sexual assault charges, one attempted felony sexual assault and two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault involving a 16-year-old girl.
Martinez, who is also known as David Barber and David Louis, pleaded not guilty to all six counts in state court July 14. Circuit Judge Richard Perkins set trial for September.
Martinez remains at Oahu Community Correctional Center, unable to post $400,000 bail.
Deputy Prosecutor Lisa De Mello said Martinez was extradited back to Honolulu from the mainland earlier this year after he fled while out on supervised release.
Last year Deputy Prosecutor Chastity Imamura told Perkins in court that Martinez gave the 16-year-old girl three to five shots of hard liquor and assaulted her after she fell asleep. She said the girl underwent psychological treatment because of the assault and for a period of time was suicidal.
Imamura also said Martinez had been planning to leave Hawaii before his arrest.
The deputy public defender representing Martinez did not return a call for comment last week.
In 2005 Martinez, using the name David Louis, opened Heart Gallery Hawaii, the local chapter of Heart Gallery of America, an organization that encourages people to adopt foster children by taking photos of the children and displaying them publicly. Heart Gallery Hawaii is no longer in operation.
Martinez became executive director of Heart Gallery of America, based in Sarasota, Fla., in 2009.
In 2006 Martinez released a book, titled "Scars That Can Heal," about his experiences growing up in foster homes on the mainland. He said he went through 30 foster placements and changed schools 19 times.
He said he was badly abused in one of his foster homes.
In 2009 Aiea residents Joe and Sharon De Moor announced they were adopting Martinez, whom they knew as David Louis, a fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses member, to give him the family he never had. The couple could not be reached for comment.
Martinez had two biological children and an adopted son at the time the De Moors announced they were adopting him.
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