An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging a former teacher’s aide at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and the Blind with sexually assaulting a student at the school.
Alfie S. Lumabas is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault. The alleged crimes happened in 2005 when Lumabas was 29 and the female student was 14. Deputy Prosecutor Chastity Imamura said Lumabas moved to California later that year.
Lumabas is the first person to face criminal charges in connection with alleged sexual assaults at the only public school in Hawaii for deaf and blind students.
A federal judge approved a $5.75 million class-action lawsuit in April against the state and the Department of Education, brought by students who claimed they were bullied, terrorized, assaulted, robbed and raped at the Waikiki campus and on the school’s buses by other students.
The state agreed to pay $5 million. Scott O’Neal, a former counselor at the school, agreed to pay $750,000.
The students and their parents accused school officials of trying to cover up what was happening and O’Neal of engaging in inappropriate and questionable activities.
The settlement made provisions for payments, not only to former and current students who say they were sexually assaulted by other students, but also to those who had "a sexual encounter with a staff member."
The victim in the sexual assault case, who was living in the school’s dormitory in 2005, and her parents, filed a separate lawsuit in state court in 2010 against Lumabas, the state and the DOE. They were unable to locate and serve Lumabas with the lawsuit for months until a private investigator learned that he frequented a theater in North Hollywood, Calif., that puts on sign-language performances.
The girl and her parents later dropped their lawsuit and joined the federal class action.
The girl alleges that Lumabas sexually assaulted her during school-related, one-on-one tutoring sessions.
The state said school officials did not find out about the alleged sexual assaults until February 2008, when the girl disclosed them to a female counselor.
The state said a school administrator then immediately notified the girl’s parents.
The girl also reported the alleged sexual assaults to Honolulu police in 2008.
Police forwarded the case to the city prosecutor’s office, which pursued it in 2010, after Keith Kaneshiro took office.
