Maui, HAWAII

The predator was not a teacher, but the judge's colossal stupidity is worth noting.

Dec 28, 2007 - Mark Bennett, Hawaii's attorney general, wants tougher sentencing for Internet predators. He wrote this commentary for The Honolulu Advertiser: "Internet Predators Should Not Get Probation"

A recent Maui case illustrates why we need to change the law. Robert McKnight, 37, chatted over the Internet with one of our agents, whom McKnight believed was a 15-year-old Oahu girl. McKnight solicited her for sex, offered to be her "sexual teacher," masturbated several times on his Web cam which she could see, and described in great detail all the sexual acts he wanted to perform with her, including vaginal and anal intercourse and oral sex. He purchased a plane ticket for her to go to Maui, and he was arrested at the Kahului airport when he went to pick her up.

McKnight pleaded not guilty to the felony of electronic enticement of a child, and went to trial. A jury convicted McKnight, and we asked Maui Circuit Court Judge Joel August to sentence McKnight to 10 years in jail (the Hawaii Paroling Authority would have determined McKnight's minimum jail term before parole eligibility).

Instead, Judge August gave McKnight, who had a prior conviction for abuse of a family or household member, the absolute minimum sentence allowed by law -- probation and one year in jail. Judge August also allowed McKnight to remain free on bail pending McKnight's appeal, finding that McKnight posed no danger to any other person or to the community.

Judge August made the following comments (taken verbatim from the official court transcript) while imposing the minimum sentence allowed by law:

"It is clearly a problem which is to a certain extent cultural based. I mean, there are other cultures, not ours, where having sexual relations with young people is apparently not frowned upon."

"I mean, the last wife that Osama Bin Laden took a few years ago -- I think that was his fourth wife, all at the same time -- I believe was 14 years old. That apparently is not frowned upon in his particular culture."

"(O)bviously there are things that are driving Mr. McKnight which have caused him to, you know, fall prey to certain desires which society has determined to be inappropriate and risking the welfare of minors."

While hopefully no other Hawaii judge would have the poor judgment to believe Osama Bin Laden's alleged 14-year-old wife and "cultural differences" are reasons to give a convicted Internet sexual predator the minimum sentence allowed by law, Judge August's judicial colleagues have been similarly lenient with convicted predators.

This sends the wrong message to such predators, does not act as a sufficient deterrent to potential predators, keeps more predators on the streets and, in a very real sense, endangers Hawaii's children. Convicted Internet sexual predators need to be in jail for a long time, and those who are considering predation need to know that if they are caught, they will go to jail for a long time. That knowledge, hopefully, will deter at least some of them from targeting Hawai'i's kids.

The proposed new law is the Child and Adult Protection and Safety Act of 2008.

TT - This is the judge's official bio. Our view is that no predator should be sentenced to parole for sexual enticement or abuse of a child, whether on the Internet or in classrooms, but it happens every day. And judges who are this ignorant should never have been appointed to the bench. But, thankfully, that doesn't happen every day.