City prosecutors are seeking dismissal of a charge that a 53-year-old substitute custodian sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy at a Waipio school, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The reason for the dismissal is because the parents of the victim do not want to pursue the case, a spokesman for the prosector’s office said Friday. The motion was filed in Honolulu District Court on Thursday and needs to be approved by a judge.
James Holt, who had been a state Department of Education employee since 2000, was arrested at Kanoelani Elementary School in Waipio Gentry on Aug. 27 on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault. He was later charged with the lesser offense of third-degree sexual assault.
Defense attorney Victor Bakke said he plans to ask a District Court judge at an Oct. 24 hearing to dismiss the case with prejudice so charges cannot be reinstated.
Bakke said Holt, who has been free after posting $50,000 bail, was devastated by the accusation.
Bakke said the 5-year-old victim was "not a credible witness," having gotten only a glimpse of a man who "poked him in the back" and ran out the door.
"He didn’t even get a look at the guy," except to say that he "‘had lotion on his hand. He was bigger and older than my dad and was wearing a cowboy hat,’" Bakke said.
The identification procedure used by the police at Kanoelani a couple of hours later was improper, Bakke asserted.
Bakke said one officer was with the child while another officer walked Holt down the sidewalk toward the child.
"They get to where they are 5 feet from each other," Bakke said. "The kid freezes. Then they say, ‘Is that him?’ He (child) doesn’t say anything.
"Then they say, ‘Is that him or isn’t that him?’ and the kid says, ‘Yeah.’ That’s it and they walk away."
After the Aug. 27 arrest, the Department of Education said it was conducting its own investigation, during which Holt was banned from the campus.
The DOE said Friday the investigation hasn’t been completed and that Holt’s employment status is on hold.
Bakke said he plans to meet with DOE officials about getting Holt reinstated.
Bakke said the only thing Holt was told by the DOE was that he shouldn’t return to the campus.
Holt was a substitute custodian and was scheduled to be at the elementary school, which serves 740 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, for "only three or four more months," Bakke said.
