A 30-year-old man suspected of three rapes made his initial appearance in Honolulu District Court after he was charged in one of the cases over the weekend.
Asofitu Fio, an employee of Catholic Charities Hawaii, appeared before District Judge Leslie Hayashi on Monday after he was charged a day earlier with two counts of first-degree sex assault, two counts of third-degree sex assault, kidnapping and first-degree burglary in connection with a rape that occurred Dec. 1 on Cedar Street. Fio was shackled and in a white prison jumpsuit during his court appearance.
He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled to be held Wednesday afternoon.
A spokeswoman for Catholic Charities said Fio has been relieved of his duties pending the outcome of the investigation. She declined to provide details of his job position and length of employment. The spokeswoman said officials with the social service organization would not comment because the investigation is underway.
Fio was arrested Friday at his North Vineyard Boulevard apartment soon after it was determined that a sample of his DNA matched DNA recovered by a doctor who examined the victim, police said.
The victim told police she was sleeping at about 11:30 a.m. Dec. 1 in her bedroom at her Cedar Street apartment when she heard the doorbell ring, according to a police affidavit filed in Honolulu District Court. When she didn’t see anyone through the peephole, the woman opened her front door, and a man forced his way inside her apartment.
The victim said she started screaming but the man covered her mouth with his hand and pushed her to the floor. She said he then covered her head with a gray fleecelike material and punched her in the mouth.
The affidavit further stated the victim said the man dragged her to the bedroom, pushed her onto the bed and removed her clothes. He then covered her face with a pillow and raped her, she told police. He dragged her to the living room and back to her bedroom where he again sexually assaulted her, police said.
After he stopped, police said, the victim went into the bathroom, and he fled her apartment.
Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha has said there were more than 60 officers who spent more than 1,000 hours on the Dec. 1 rape case as well as two others. The investigation involved surveillance operations, canvassing the neighborhood, talking to witnesses, checking databases and reviewing old reports for similarities, police said.
Detectives are continuing their investigation to determine Fio’s possible involvement in the two other cases:
» On June 13 a man entered through a sliding door of an Aala Street apartment while the resident was asleep and sexually assaulted her, CrimeStoppers reported.
» On May 28 a man approached a woman from behind as she tried to enter her Ahana Street apartment, according to CrimeStoppers. He struck her, causing her to fall, then sexually assaulted her.
Fio has a prior conviction for disorderly conduct, a petty misdemeanor, stemming from an incident in November 2011, for which he was fined $150.
