The July 24 sentencing of Peter J. Kema, Sr. is what you’d expect when justice is delayed for two decades. This monster who tortured and in 1997 killed his young son — “Peter Boy” Kema, Jr. — should have faced life imprisonment for murder. Instead, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and could be released early on parole.
Incredibly and sadly, Peter Sr. will be eligible for parole after serving less time in prison than how long Peter Boy was even alive and, shockingly, less than a third of the time that Peter Boy has already been dead.
This miscarriage of justice is obvious to anyone who viewed the 2,000 pages of official Peter Boy records I publicly disclosed from 2005 to 2010 when serving as Hawaii Human Services State director. These deeply disturbing records are also revealed and explained in my four-part e-book series.
The fact is, Peter Boy’s suffering and death should have been prevented by many people within Hawaii’s child protection system. He should have been protected from his mother, Jaylin M. A. Kema, who actively participated in Peter Boy’s tragic demise and got a virtual free pass after just one year in jail. And Peter Boy especially should have been protected from his father’s sadistic, relentless and remorseless child abuse and neglect.
Unfortunately, people who were most directly involved, even legally charged with protecting Peter Boy and his three young siblings from parental abuse and neglect, repeatedly made egregious mistakes. His siblings, fortunately, survived this monumental system failure. But Peter Boy, at barely 6 years of age, did not.
When I served as state Human Services director and first disclosed the Peter Boy records 12 years ago, there was an opportunity to obtain much better outcomes from the criminal justice system.
In January 2005, Jaylin Kema had a restraining order against her estranged husband and might have testified against him in criminal court if they both were indicted for murder.
Moreover, the surviving three children were eight years older in 2005 (12, 16 and 18) than they were when Peter Boy “disappeared” in 1997. Their eyewitness accounts would have been more credible in 2005 had Peter Boy’s parents been indicted back then.
Even two years later in 2007, the opportunity to indict Peter Boy’s parents was inexplicably passed over. Then-Hawaii County Prosecutor Jay Kimura publicly encouraged “patience.” But, as letters handwritten in January 2007 by each of these siblings demonstrated, their memories and ability to articulate remained crystal clear about what happened to Peter Boy.
Why wait until 2016 to seek grand jury murder indictments? What “new evidence” necessitated the passage of 11 more years, on top of the eight years already passed since Peter Boy vanished, to seek murder indictments against the parents? Why allow these conspiratorial, child-abusing murderers to live their lives free of accountability for 19 years?
One thing is for sure. Penalties against Peter Boy’s parents would have been much harsher if indictments occurred in 2005 before the statutes of limitations on numerous crimes expired. As a legal maxim correctly points out, justice delayed is justice denied.
Now that Peter Kema Sr. has been sentenced, I urge the public to avoid a sense of closure. We still must enact critical reforms in Hawaii’s child protection system so other children do not suffer Peter Boy’s fate.
We need look no further than the recent Big Island tragedy of a 9-year-old girl being starved to death. Clearly, the lessons from Peter Boy’s tragedy have yet to be learned.
Lillian B. Koller, J.D., was director of Hawaii’s Department of Human Services, 2003-2010.
