Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
A visiting priest was acquitted Monday of all charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman at a former convent on the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church.
The Rev. Bothdan Borowic, 56, was accused of fondling the 55-year-old woman Feb. 13 at the Makai House on the church grounds in Kuliouou.
The woman testified Borowic gave her a bear hug, grabbed her buttock and did not let go until she pushed him way. He later gave her another bear hug and also fondled her, she said.
Borowic denied acting inappropriately. He testified in Circuit Court that he gave the woman a traditional Ukrainian hug, then talked to her in his role as a priest before hugging her as she left.
Borowic was here to lead services for St. Sophia’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Mission, the Catholic Diocese of Hawaii said, but was arrested and charged within two weeks of arriving.
He testified he was placed on administrative leave and was not performing services.
The jurors deliberated for about two hours before acquitting Borowic of kidnapping and two counts of third-degree sexual assault.
The assault counts each carried a prison term of up to five years. Kidnapping is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.