Jury to weigh if teen is victim or vengeful

A Circuit Court jury will resume deliberations today on whether a Waipahu High School track coach and teacher sexually assaulted a girl on the track team in 2010 and 2011.

Erik Tamura is accused of molesting the teenager during her sophomore and junior years at school and once at her home.

City Deputy Prosecutor Victoria Chang told the jury in closing arguments on Wednesday that the teenager had no motive to lie in testifying about the embarrassing details of sexual assaults.

She said Tamura was a "master manipulator" who gained the trust of the girl and her family, then betrayed that trust in molesting her by touching her breasts, buttocks and crotch.

Tamura’s lawyer Kenneth Shimozono said that the sexual assaults never happened and the girl’s motive to lie was that Tamura had stopped coaching her.

The girl feared that her future in track would be jeopardized, Shimozono said.

He said the case is about "teenage revenge" and called it a "scary case."

"It shows you how one person can make an accusation and turn someone’s life upside down," he said.

Chang, however, said the teenager, now 18, was not on trial. "She did nothing wrong," Chang said.

The panel deliberated for the afternoon after the closing arguments.

Tamura, an English teacher who also had taught the girl, was placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest in February 2012.

He is on trial on three counts of third-degree sexual assault. Each count carries a prison term of up to five years.