The lawyer of a former missionary from the Philippines says his client was
sexually abused and trafficked to Hawaii and church officials trumped up sexual assault charges against her in retaliation for her fleeing and accusing one of those
officials of assaulting her.
Kristina Angeles, the former missionary, is awaiting trial in state court on charges that she sexually assaulted the underage daughter of
a member of the Philippine-based megachurch Kingdom of Jesus Christ( KJC), The Name Above Every Name. The church was founded by Apollo Quiboloy, a longtime friend of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
KJC’s Hawaii agent, Felina Salinas, also is awaiting trial in federal court on charges that she tried to smuggle $335,000 in U.S. currency and $9,000 Australian dollars out of the country aboard a private jet headed to the Philippines.
The indictment against
Salinas accuses her of failing to report that she was carrying the money and of helping Quiboloy avoid arrest and prosecution by claiming the money was hers. Customs
officials took Salinas into custody. Quiboloy returned to the Philippines.
Salinas’ lawyer Michael Green says he has information that the federal government has been investigating KJC for some time.
The U.S. Attorney in
Hawaii asked Angeles for an interview in March.
Salinas was released on $25,000 bond one day after her arrest and was required to wear a location monitoring ankle bracelet. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi granted Salinas’s request on Sept. 12 to remove the ankle bracelet. U.S.
District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi overruled Puglisi after the government submitted sealed documents and appealed.
At Thursday’s public
hearing on the appeal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Muehleck made the same
arguments to Kobayashi
that he did to Puglisi and made no mention of a federal investigation of KJC.
Angeles’ lawyer in the state sexual assault case, Deputy Public Defender Grant Giventer, had asked Circuit Judge Rom Trader
to order the state to turn over any documents in its possession of any federal investigation of KJC or of church members.
Deputy Prosecutor Rochelle Vidinha said she didn’t have any such documents. She told Trader on Tuesday that the FBI, U.S. Attorney in Hawaii and the Department of Homeland Security told her that they could not give her any documents from an ongoing investigation. She said she did not get a response from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Santa Ana, Calif. KJC’s U.S. headquarters are in Van Nuys, Calif.
Angeles filed a complaint with Honolulu police in
November 2014 accusing Salinas of assaulting her. Salinas posted bail after police arrested her, but prosecutors never charged her with any crimes. Giventer says the daughter of a church member made false allegations against Angeles just days after Angeles had fled from the church. Prosecutors charged Angeles with first-degree
and third-degree sexual
assault in February 2015.
Giventer says the minor girl made sexual assault
allegations against at least one other person.
Vidinha told Trader that there is one other case involving the same girl but that the state’s decision not to file charges had nothing to do with the girl’s credibility.