A Honolulu man indicted by a federal grand jury in August on charges of producing and possessing child pornography refuses to appear before a judge.
For the third time since he was indicted Aug. 24, Darren Patrick Riley would not leave his cell Wednesday at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge
Kenneth J. Mansfield and enter a plea, according to court records.
Riley’s attorney, Melinda K.
Yamaga, did not respond to a
Honolulu Star-Advertiser request for comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca A. Perlmutter, who is prosecuting the case for the government, declined comment.
In an Oct. 6 letter to Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway and Mansfield, Yamaga noted she “had several productive conversations with Mr. Riley.”
“He indicated that he is in a mentally fragile state given the pressure of this case,” wrote
Yamaga. “Even more concerning to him is the media’s reporting on the offense. He would like assurances that there will be no media coverage when he appears in court.”
If convicted, Riley faces between 15 and 30 years in federal prison.
If Riley agrees, Yamaga could file a signed “waiver of appearance and entry of not guilty plea” by the end of business on Tuesday.
Riley’s “initial appearance and arraignment and plea to indictment or for competency hearing” is scheduled for Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in Mansfield’s court.
In the summer of 2019, Riley “did attempt to and did employ, use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor” to engage in sexually explicit conduct that he could photograph and record and share, according to the indictment.
The indictment says Riley did “unlawfully and knowingly possess a matter that contained images of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct” including images of children younger than 12.
