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Retired Honolulu police officer gets 10-year-sentence for attempted sexual enticement of minor

Timothy Hurley

A retired Honolulu police officer was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 120 months in prison for attempting to entice what he thought was a 13-year-old boy into having sex.

James Dean Kalani Goeas, 63, of Waipahu was also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release as a result of a sting operation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to U.S. Attorney Kenji M. Price, Goeas engaged in a series of online chats and text conversations with an undercover agent acting in the role of a 13-year-old male.

During their conversations, Goeas arranged to meet and have sex with the teenager on March 24, 2019, at Maukalani Park in Kapolei. But when Goeas arrived at the park, he was apprehended by FBI agents.

At the time of Goeas’s arrest, agents located both condoms and lubricating gel in his vehicle, Price said, and Goeas later admitted to past sexual contact with minor males, including a 15-year-old boy while he was an officer with the Honolulu Police Department.

“While online platforms and cellphones enhance our ability to connect with friends and loved ones, unfortunately, child sex predators use them to try to sexually exploit children. My office will continue to partner with the FBI to fight child sex exploitation, and through our enforcement efforts, remind child sex offenders that we will find a suitable home for them in federal prison,” Price said in a statement.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Goeas worked for the Honolulu Police Department as an officer between 1987 and 2015.

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