A former preschool teacher awaiting trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl is in custody after state officials learned he went to Mexico while he was free on $100,000 bail.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment in
2013 charging Kaleb Acklin with first-degree sexual assault. The indictment alleges that the assault happened
in 2011.
The prosecutor said
Acklin was baby-sitting the 4-year-old girl and a sibling in the girl’s home.
Acklin had been free on $100,000 bail since November 2011. One of the standard conditions of his release is that he is prohibited from leaving Oahu
without obtaining permission. Acklin, however, was never ordered to turn in his passport.
Deputy Prosecutor Thalia Murphy told acting Circuit Judge Paul B.K. Wong on Wednesday that she had recently learned that Acklin went to Cancun, Mexico, in January. She said the Department of Homeland Security told her Acklin flew to Mexico through Houston on Jan. 7 and returned to Honolulu on Jan. 17.
Since his return another grand jury returned an indictment charging Acklin with sexually assaulting a second child between August 2009 and January 2011, starting when the victim was 6. Acklin posted $200,000 bail for that case.
Murphy said Acklin never asked for, or was granted, permission to leave Oahu.
“He has the audacity to not only leave the jurisdiction, but to leave the country. He is not taking the charges seriously,” Murphy said.
She asked Wong to revoke Acklin’s bail.
Victor Bakke, Acklin’s lawyer in the 2013 case, told Wong he didn’t know that Acklin went to Mexico before Murphy informed him of it. He said Acklin is a professional deejay and was invited to participate in a musical festival in Playa del Carmen. On the way back to Honolulu, he visited his grandparents in Atlanta.
“This was a slip-up that was basically harmless,” Bakke said. “He just made a stupid decision to go and do this job.”
He said Acklin has never missed an appointment or court hearing.
State sheriff deputies took Acklin into custody Wednesday after Wong increased his bail in the 2013 case to $500,000, and he remains in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Wong also ordered Acklin to surrender his passport. He did not increase Acklin’s bail for the 2017 case because Acklin was not yet under indictment for the new charges when he went to Mexico.
Acklin is scheduled to stand trial for the 2017 case in January and the 2013 case in May.