She got the surprising news from her older brother.
Chauntelle Acol, 28, learned that an online book had just been published detailing the horrific abuse that she and her siblings had suffered as children at the hands of their parents.
None of the three siblings, now ages 24 to 30, knew the book was in the works. What they read online upset them, Acol said, resurrecting painful memories from years ago.
Acol was disgusted. “I felt violated almost,” the massage therapist told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a phone interview from Florida. “To put our abuse back out there is terrible.”
Acol was referring to an e-book that was published last month about the tragic case of her brother, Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr., who disappeared in 1997 on the Big Island in one of the most infamous child abuse cases in Hawaii’s history.
Their father, Peter Kema Sr., and mother, Jaylin Kema, were indicted last year on charges of second-degree murder after authorities stepped up efforts in 2014 to find new leads in the long-dormant case.
In a deal with prosecutors, their father pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter and hindering prosecution and faces 20 years behind bars. Their mother recently completed a one-year sentence for her manslaughter plea in December. The lighter sentence, which included time already served, was in exchange for agreeing to testify against her husband.
The remains of Peter Boy, 6, have not been found.
Just days after Peter Kema Sr. pleaded guilty, Lillian Koller, who from 2003 to 2010 served as Gov. Linda Lingle’s director of the state Department of Human Services, which investigates child abuse cases, released “Peter Boy, Hawaii’s Most Notorious Case of Child Abuse and Murder.”
It was the first of four e-book installments Koller has written on the case and is based on about 2,000 confidential DHS documents that she released publicly in 2005 as director.
Source material
The redacted documents remained on the DHS website until 2010, when the incoming Abercrombie administration removed them for confidentiality reasons.
Drawing from those documents, Koller provides her interpretation of events, including the repeated abuse suffered by Peter Boy and his siblings and how the system failed them “again and again” as the kids were returned to their parents despite a history of abuse.
Koller, in an email to the Star-Advertiser, said she has been writing the book series “in my head and in my heart” since she inherited the cold case of Peter Boy when she became DHS director in January 2003.
“My motivation is to expose serious shortcomings in Hawaii’s child protective ‘system’ and hopefully prevent other children from suffering parental abuse and neglect,” she wrote, adding that her intention is to “create a positive legacy from Peter Boy’s short and tragic life.”
Asked why she didn’t make any effort to contact Peter Boy’s three siblings, including Alan Acol, 30, and Devalynn Kema, 24, Koller wrote that her book series is intentionally and exclusively based on the CPS records that she publicly disclosed during her directorship.
She said she had no intention of including any additional information. One of the biggest points of her series, she wrote, is to show how many details were already known about the case when she disclosed the confidential documents in 2005. Some information dated to 1991.
Yet nothing happened for 11 years after the documents were released, Koller noted. “Peter Boy’s parents were allowed to live their lives as free persons for so long,” she wrote. “It’s a disgrace.”
‘Sheer cruelty’
Koller said she wasn’t concerned that publishing the book would have a negative effect on the adult siblings now, saying the information she uses was in the public domain for more than five years.
“Peter Boy and his three surviving siblings were victims of extreme and prolonged child abuse,” Koller said. “They did nothing wrong. They have nothing to be ashamed of. In my opinion, we exacerbate the wrongs committed against victims by trying to hide those wrongs which, unintentionally, makes victims feel like they have something to hide.”
Some people familiar with child abuse criticized Koller for not speaking to Peter Boy’s family and for selling a book based on a family tragedy that involved a government agency she used to oversee. The first installment sells for $4.99 online, though Kindle users can download it for free.
“The sheer cruelty of failing even to warn the siblings before springing this on them boggles the mind,” wrote Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, in an email to the Star-Advertiser.
“No one wants to see this family re-victimized,” added Steve Lane, a private investigator who was appointed by the court as special master to explore whether Peter Boy’s estate has grounds to pursue a negligence claim against the state.
Mixed reviews
While Acol acknowledged that Koller’s intentions were good, she faulted the former director for her approach and was especially concerned that her 6-year-old son might someday read the book.
“How dare you put your own perspective on something I went through and then publish it,” Acol said. “It’s kind of hard for me to see the good intentions when you didn’t even consult the people who were hurt. How would you feel if someone did that to you?”
She also said some of Koller’s interpretations were inaccurate.
Koller said interviewing the surviving siblings or other key figures was beyond the scope of her writing. As for the accuracy issue, Koller said every nonfiction book is based on the author’s interpretation of the facts.
After the 324-page book was released, a Koller representative contacted reporters to say that the author decided to delete the use of a particularly sensitive abuse phrase from the series and requested that it not be mentioned in any coverage.
Asked for comment on Koller’s contention that systemic flaws still exist, a DHS spokeswoman issued a statement reiterating the department’s commitment to the safety and well-being of Hawaii’s children and to maintaining the confidentiality of information protected from disclosure by law. She said DHS can comment on Koller’s book once it has fully reviewed the publication.
The first installment has received mixed reaction online.
“Ms. Koller, I just finished reading this book and it was absolutely breathtaking!” wrote one unidentified reader. “I want to thank you for your dedication to Peter Boy and your courage to share his story.”
“How anyone can use this absolute tragedy to make a profit … not pono in any way,” wrote Georgi DeCosta in another post.
Koller said she doesn’t expect to recoup the out-of-pocket expenses for the countless hours she spent over the past two years researching, writing and self-publishing the project, and gets only a fraction of the $4.99 purchase price on Amazon. “Clearly, I didn’t write the book series to make money.”
Policy changes
Describing herself as part storyteller and part whistleblower, Koller said she is exposing the truth in hopes of preventing future failures, and touted her upcoming second installment, in which she plans to reveal “shocking details not previously known or not previously appreciated.” She did not specify a publication date.
Susan Chandler, DHS director from 1995 to 2002 and now a University of Hawaii professor, said the department’s child welfare services division has made many improvements over the past two decades. She listed more than half a dozen reforms, including a nationally recognized ohana model of making family decisions about safety plans for children.
Wexler, the reform executive, questioned whether possible policy changes can be gleaned from such an old case. Trying to apply broad lessons from the most horrifying cases often makes child welfare systems worse, he said.
“The only way to learn how systems typically fail — and learn genuinely useful lessons — is to study ‘typical’ cases,” Wexler wrote. “It’s bad enough when agencies try to make policy- by-horror-story when using recent horror stories. It’s even worse to claim you can learn broad, sweeping lessons from 20-year-old horror stories.”
Former Sen. Fred Hemmings, however, wrote in the foreword to the book about the possibility of change. “If the lessons exposed in Lillian’s book series — the lessons yet to be learned from Peter Boy’s heartbreaking story — are taken to heart by public officials everywhere, then Peter Boy’s legacy will be a positive one,” he wrote.
