Well-known kumu hula Howell “Chinky” Mahoe of Kailua — who is a convicted and registered child sex crime offender — is among many authority figures in Hawaii facing civil lawsuits after last week’s wave of filings in advance of a key deadline.
A suit filed in Circuit Court alleges that Mahoe engaged in sex acts with a minor below the age of consent. The complainant, now an adult, is described only by his initials due to privacy concerns. The complaint asks for a jury trial and monetary damages.
In 1998 Mahoe was charged with third-degree sex assault against four boys in his hula halau. He pleaded no contest and was convicted and sentenced to five years’ probation. He has since continued to teach hula, and compete and win awards at the prestigious annual Merrie Monarch contest.
Mahoe declined to respond when asked about the most recent allegation during a phone call Tuesday from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“No, I don’t have any comment, not right now,” Mahoe said.
Hawaii law requires survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file a lawsuit within eight years of turning 18 or within three years of discovering that an injury or illness during adulthood was caused by childhood sexual abuse. But Friday was the last day of a window allowing filings related to much older claims. Allegations, some dating back to the 1970s, were filed last week claiming sexual abuse by coaches, teachers, priests, doctors, Scout leaders and other adult authority figures; in some cases the institutions they represent are also being sued.
In the suit against Mahoe, his business, Halau o Kawai‘ula, is also named as a defendant.
Randall Rosenberg, one of the lawyers in the case against Mahoe, said his firm alone now has 70 active sexual abuse cases.
“We filed a lot of them earlier in the year but a lot last week, also,” Rosenberg said.
The specific charges of abuse by Mahoe brought forth in the suit start in 1994 when the plaintiff was among a group of Mahoe hula students who were boys age 6-12. Mahoe is accused in the lawsuit of fondling the boy’s genitals as the boy watched television at Mahoe’s home. The boys were staying overnight there to prepare for an upcoming hula competition, according to the suit.
“Mahoe would use these overnighters to select certain boys to be victims of sexual abuse,” the filing says.
Later, during a hula competition trip to California in either 1995 or 1996, the suit claims, Mahoe performed unwanted oral sex on the boy, which stopped only when someone knocked on Mahoe’s hotel room door.
Star-Advertiser staff writer Susan Essoyan contributed to this report.
