Missionary pleads guilty in plane groping

A 21-year-old man from American Samoa pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to simple assault for groping a woman aboard his return flight from a Mormon mission in the Philippines.

Luavalu Seuvaai faces a maximum six-month jail term and $10,000 fine when he is sentenced in December.

The federal prosecutor had originally charged Seuvaai with abusive sexual contact punishable by a maximum two-year prison term.

Church officials in Salt Lake City confirm Seuvaai is one of their missionaries.

Seuvaai admitted in court that he groped a 42-year-old woman seated next to him on a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu from Manila on Aug. 16.

"It was a long flight. In some point I touched her breast without permission," Seuvaai said.

The woman told investigators Seuvaai touched her after she took one spoonful of liquid NyQuil and fell asleep.

Woman facing burglary charge

Hawaii County police charged a 20-year-old woman with a June 30 burglary in Pepeekeo.

Shaylyn Momi Araw of Pepeekeo was arrested Friday for allegedly entering a house while no one was there and taking coins. She was charged with first-degree burglary. Her bail was set at $5,000.

Araw has also been charged with first-degree attempted burglary. In the July 5 case, neighbors saw a woman running from a Pepeekeo home, and police found evidence of an attempted break-in, discovering damage to a glass window pane.

Police ask anyone with information about other incidents or burglaries in the area to contact Detective Royce Serrao at 961-8810 or rpserrao@co.hawaii.hi.us or Detective John Rodrigues Jr. at 961-2384 or jrodrigues@co.hawaii.us.

Kauai renews water-use plea

The Kauai County Department of Water is extending a request for residents to conserve water in the Haena and Wainiha areas until mid-September.

The agency renewed its June 22 request because of delays in contractor Unlimited Construction finishing rehabilitation work on the 100,000-gallon Haena tank and the Wainiha booster pump station.

Area residents are asked to continue to restrict water consumption to essential uses, such as cooking, bathing and toilet flushing, a county news release said. With the limited capacity of the smaller temporary tanks providing water service to the areas, conservation is necessary to avoid outages, the release said.

For information, call DOW at 245-5461 during business hours, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.