A 31-year-old Wahiawa man facing federal child pornography charges after he forced two young girls living in a foster home to perform sex acts that he recorded in exchange for food pleaded guilty Thursday.
Bryson Joshua “Bula” Mahoe, who was charged by a federal grand jury
Oct. 20 with one count of production of child pornography and one count of
possession of child pornography, entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
He entered a guilty plea to the production of child pornography and will be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 15. The U.S. Department of Justice agreed to drop the possession charge in exchange for the guilty plea.
Mahoe faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, plus a term of supervised release of five years to life. Mahoe also faces a $5,000 assessment and up to a $50,000 assessment for the production of child pornography.
The girls accused their then-foster parents of withholding food from them,
according to federal court documents.
According to an affidavit by an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who worked the case, Mahoe allegedly would give the girls snacks and food if they performed sex acts on him that he would film or photograph.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca A. Perlmutter, who is prosecuting the case for the government, and Mahoe’s attorney, federal public defender Salina M. Kanai, declined comment.
Mahoe lived with his parents, Peter and Dorothy Mahoe, the girls’ first-time foster parents.
Peter Mahoe told the
Honolulu Star-Advertiser in October that family members in Waimanalo asked
to serve as adoptive foster parents for the girls, who were under the age of 10 at the time. Mahoe denied starving them or harming them in any way.
Bryson Mahoe was arrested by Honolulu police Feb. 10, 2022, on suspicion of continuous sex assault of a minor under the age of 14.
He was released pending investigation when police executed a search warrant and discovered videos and images of child pornography stored on various electronic devices and memory cards in his home. They allegedly included images and photos of the two minor girls who accused him, and other images and videos of child sex assault, according to court documents.
On Feb. 1, 2022, the Honolulu Police Department received a report that two girls allegedly had been sexually abused by a person known to them as Bryson Mahoe, also known as “Bula,” according to federal court documents.
Eight days later, “minor victim 1” was interviewed by a child adolescent forensic interviewer at the Children’s Justice Center in Nuuanu. During that interview she said she was about 8 when she, her sister and her brother moved in with the Mahoes, her adoptive foster parents, in July 2016.
“Minor victim 1” said one of her foster parents withheld food from her, her sister and her brother. Mahoe allegedly gave the girls food, but they would have to perform oral sex, allow him to touch their private parts, and take videos and images of themselves nude and while showering, according to federal court documents.
Mahoe allegedly used a silver-colored iPad and two mobile phones to record the incidents. The girl told investigators that Mahoe began assaulting her when she was “eight or nine years old and continued until she was approximately 14 or
15 years old,” according
to the criminal complaint, or from July 2016 until
February.
On April 20 the girl’s sister, “minor victim 2,” was interviewed at the CJC and described Mahoe as a “rapist.” She told investigators she would refuse to let Mahoe record the incidents but believed he still recorded them. She said the abuse began when she was about “7 or 8 years old” and continued until she was about 14.
The time period for the alleged abuse was the same as her sister’s, July 2016 until February.
Mahoe was arrested by federal agents Oct. 11.
Mahoe has been accused before of filming a female against her will.
In 2016 he pleaded no contest to first-degree violation of privacy, a Class C felony. That offense takes place when a person takes sexual photographs or videotapes of a person without that person’s consent and when the person expects privacy.
He was charged May 10, 2016, and his bail was set at $11,000. On Oct. 4, 2016, he received a deferred acceptance of guilty plea, abided by conditions similar to probation, and the charge against him was dismissed Oct. 5, 2020.
