Sex between a taxicab driver and a female passenger was consensual, the cabby’s lawyer insisted Monday as his trial opened in Circuit Court.
But the prosecutor told jurors that urinalysis showed the woman had the date rape drug in her system.
Enio Tablas, 54, is charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault for an incident involving a 21-year-old woman. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is not naming the woman because she is alleged to be a victim of sexual assault.
Tablas will return to court at a later date to face two more counts of second-degree sexual assault charges for a similar but separate incident involving another 21-year-old woman, whom he was alleged to have raped in his cab. The prosecution wanted to try the cases together, but Tablas’ court-appointed attorney, Harrison Kiehm, successfully had the two cases severed in an earlier motion.
In the current case the woman told police that she was walking home July 4, 2014, after a night of drinking in Waikiki when Tablas approached her in a red taxicab and offered her a free ride. When she got into the cab, two Australian men were in the back seat, and they told Tablas to take her home first.
However, she said, Tablas insisted on dropping them off first. She told police she fell asleep and that when she awoke Tablas was guiding her down a path to a beach, where he sexually assaulted her. She said that when Tablas dropped her off he told her, “Remember me — I’m the red cab.”
In her opening statement to jurors, Deputy Prosecutor Victoria Chang told jurors that Tablas targeted the woman because she was young and vulnerable, calling out to her and offering her a free ride that was undocumented and off the radar.
“As a taxicab driver he preys on women who are alone and defenseless,” Chang said. “The defendant knew that (she) had something to drink … and used it to his advantage.”
Chang said experts will testify that Tablas’ DNA was on the woman’s body and underwear and that a urinalysis showed the presence of the date rape drug in her system. She also will show that police recovered the woman’s cellphone during a search of Tablas’ home and car. Co-workers and friends will say she was distraught.
In his opening remarks, Kiehm described the incident as an awkward sexual encounter between the defendant and the woman.
“She went to a couple of bars. … Instead of meeting some handsome young man like Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp, at the end of the night, she ends up with someone like (Tablas),” Kiehm said. “For the (woman), this was a ‘What have I done?’ type of moment. She was embarrassed; she was disgusted and ashamed.”
Kiehm said Tablas invited the woman to the beach because she told him she was afraid to go home because of an aggressive guy whom she had met earlier in the evening. Kiehm said a massage led to consensual oral sex. During the encounter, Kiehm said, the woman was on her phone talking and texting. Kiehm said Tablas complied when the woman asked to go home.
“When dropping her off, hoping he might see her again, he said, “‘Remember me — I’m the red cab,’” he said.
The trial will continue today and is expected to conclude this week. A court date has not been set for the remaining charges against Tablas.
In that case the woman told police she was walking alone at 1 a.m. March 29, 2014, along Nuuanu Avenue. She said she’d had a fight with her boyfriend after drinking and that Tablas approached in his red taxicab and offered her a free ride.
She told police she passed out in the cab and that when she awoke Tablas was raping her. She said he told her to smile and took her picture before dropping her off near Ala Moana Center.
