A state judge sentenced the first person in Hawaii to face criminal charges for “sexting” Wednesday to five years of probation.
The probation is the sentence to which Cody Onizuka, 26, agreed in a plea deal with the prosecutor when he pleaded guilty in April to harassment by stalking and aggravated harassment by stalking.
He had been charged with possession of child pornography and violating a restraining order for giving a 12-year-old girl a cellphone that the girl used to send him explicit pictures of herself and explicit text messages.
The deal also means Onizuka will not have to register as a convicted sex offender.
Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario did, however, order Onizuka to undergo sex offender treatment.
Onizuka was working as a teaching assistant at Niu Valley Middle School in 2010 when the girl’s mother obtained a restraining order to stop him from communicating with her daughter, a student at the school. He was fired in 2010.
Onizuka bought the girl a cellular telephone, persuaded another student to deliver it to the girl and continued communicating with her.
The mother called police when she found out about the sexual text messaging, or sexting, between her daughter and Onizuka.
Police recovered the explicit images the girl sent Onizuka. They were on Onizuka’s laptop computer at home.
“I just want to express my regret and my remorse for my actions,” Onizuka said in court Wednesday.
Neither the girl nor her mother was in court for Onizuka’s sentencing.
Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter said the girl and her mother agreed to the plea deal
beforehand.
