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Hawaii County police have charged a Hilo man accused of recording video of females using public restrooms before he was detained by a relative of one of them, a 13-year-old girl.
Faavae E. Tuinei, 35, was charged Monday with two counts of first-degree violation of privacy and appeared in South Hilo District Court Tuesday. He was in the Hilo police cellblock in lieu of $20,000 bail.
Police said a woman, 24, reported that she was using a public restroom in Hilo on Saturday night when a man in the next stall used a cellphone to record her. Others confronted the man and he left, police said.
Less than an hour later, Tuinei was seen using a cellphone in an adjacent stall to record a 13-year-old girl using a public bathroom in the Panaewa area, police said. The girl’s relative detained Tuinei until South Hilo patrol officers arrived and arrested him, police said.
Police Lt. Gregory Esteban said Tuinei was injured "as a result of a physical confrontation between the relative and the suspect." The relative was not hurt, he said.
Police did not arrest the relative, a 25-year-old Hilo man, but initiated a third-degree assault case that will be forwarded to the prosecutor’s office, Esteban said.
Officers recovered a cellphone that contains data relevant to the case, he said.
Police detectives are investigating.