Recent high-profile cases of child torture and neglect that led to the deaths of two children on Oahu have sharpened the focus for police officers and prosecuting attorneys pushing Hawaii lawmakers to pass a bill that would codify torture and outline punishment.
Torture would become a Class A felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, under Senate Bill 281, which has drawn a great deal of support in testimony from advocates for tougher laws that distinguish between abuse and torture.
The recent cases include starvation, prolonged physical restraint, broken bones and emaciation that led to the deaths of 11-year-old Azaeliyah Pili-Ah You and 10-year-old Geanna Bradley.
Currently, there is no “clear legal definition of torture in the state, even though it should be explicitly prohibited,” said Honolulu Police Department Capt. Vince Legaspi of the Criminal investigation Division in testimony April 2 to the state House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.
“It is essential to distinguish between abuse and torture, as they differ in severity, and the penalties should reflect that distinction. In 2024 there were several cases involving the torture of children; however, existing laws provided no framework to charge and penalize the perpetrators appropriately,” Legaspi said. “Passing this bill would establish charges that accurately reflect the severity of such acts, ensuring that offenders are held accountable for the magnitude of their crimes.”
Benjamin T. Moszkowicz, chief of the Hawaii County Police Department, told lawmakers that too many forms of “cruel and degrading treatment” are not adequately addressed by the Hawaii Revised Statutes.
“Acts such as starvation, deprivation of food, clothing and water can be challenging to prosecute under existing laws,” Moszkowicz said.
On April 6 the five children’s justice centers in Hawaii released data from 2024 that tracked 1,839 cases of child sex abuse, felony physical abuse, child sex trafficking, internet crimes against children, and children who witnessed a violent crime.
While the total of these cases increased by only seven, there was an alarming increase in cases of severe physical abuse. The number of severe cases on Maui increased, more than doubled in West Hawaii and significantly increased on Oahu.
Over the five-year period from 2000 to 2024, there were 9,627 of these cases, reported Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of Oahu.
Gap in system
Honolulu Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tiffany Kaeo, division chief of the Family Prosecution Division of the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office, told lawmakers she is “acutely aware of the need for a torture statute in this state.”
While the bill was submitted as part of the Honolulu prosecuting attorney’s legislative package, there should be “no misunderstanding that addressing child torture is not law enforcement-centric” and involves the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working in the children’s best interest.
“Thirty-six states and District of Columbia criminal codes reference child torture. However, under Hawaii’s current statutory language, torture is punished as an aggravating circumstance for murder. Even application of that sentence has been substantially weakened because the prosecution must prove the torture was ‘unnecessary,’” read Kaeo’s testimony.
The measure before lawmakers is “critical to addressing a gap in the criminal justice system.”
“As prosecutors we need to be able to provide justice to victims who survive torture at the hands of caregivers. That justice must be commensurate with the suffering that those child victims have experienced,” Kaeo said. “Currently, when a child dies, a charge of murder or manslaughter is appropriately lodged against a perpetrator.”
Child torturers are highly manipulative and extremely skilled at evading detection, testified Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erika Candelario, team captain of the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Felony Division.
“Such actions include forced exercise, restraint, forced holds in uncomfortable positions for long periods of times, imprisonment, deprivation of excretory functions, and burning or electrocution,” Candelarios said. “Food and water deprivation are increasingly common occurrences in torture-type cases. This is followed by isolation and deprivation of basic necessities which seek to cement a perpetrator’s domination and control over the victim’s every breath and every move. Because such actions by a perpetrator can be so varied, and injuries so wide-ranging (in a way that does not fit into current definitions), our response in the law should reflect the appropriate additions to hold that type of offender accountable.”
Honolulu Fire Chief Sheldon K. Hau told lawmakers that a torture bill is “long overdue.”
“As first responders we are often the first to arrive at scenes involving child abuse or neglect,” Hao said. “Although we do not investigate or prosecute these crimes, we see them, we carry them and we often cannot forget them. Our role is to provide immediate medical care, rescue and protection. However, when we arrive to find children who have been intentionally harmed, deprived, restrained or threatened, we are left with the emotional and moral weight of what we witnessed. We are the ones who carry those children out of dangerous homes. We are the ones who try to stabilize their injuries. We are the ones who must return to our stations and our families and try to process what no one should ever have to see.”
Abuse underreported
Child &Family Service CEO Amanda Pump told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that parental struggles play a key role in Hawaii’s child abuse cases, which she says are underreported. Those factors include Hawaii’s high cost of living, a generational decline in face-to-face communications and interactions, generational abuse and other factors, she said.
“We learn to communicate less, we have less interactions face to face and we need those interactions. Babies need those interactions. … They need to be held, they need to hear their parents’ voices. I do think technology limits parents’ ability to do that.”
Inflation and the high cost of living are “really limiting the time we get to spend with our children,” she said.
“What quality of time or energy do you have left (at the end of the day)? There is a lot that families are going through nowadays,” Pump said.
Pump said the state’s most recent report on child abuse and neglect, from 2023, showed an increase in the volume of calls, notably on Oahu and in Hilo.
Eighteen percent of those were confirmed for child abuse and neglect, and three-quarters of those cases involved parents who could not handle the parenting responsibility, she said.
“If we poured more attention and resources into prevention, we can help more parents not to abuse and neglect their children,” said Pump, noting that potential prevention frameworks can be embedded in existing contracts with service providers. “We need to be strengthening communities.”
The highest number of calls the state is getting are from parents with children less than a year old, she said. Fifty-seven percent of the abusers are women, as women are the primary caregivers, and their ages range between 30 and 39.
2 recent cases
The two cases in the headlines on Oahu this year involved deaths in Kahuku and Wahiawa.
On March 7 a 39-year-old Kahuku woman, Sina Pili, was arrested and charged with manslaughter for torturing and neglecting her 11-year-old adopted daughter, who died in December 2023.
The victim, Azaeliyah Pili-Ah You, had extensive bruising, deep enough to penetrate skin. She had multiple abrasions to her face, head, neck, chest, back, arms, hands and legs. She was bitten and strangled, and had two broken ribs and a scalp hemorrhage. Pili-Ah You’s body tested positive for COVID-19, pneumonia and the flu, according to HPD.
She was adopted by Sina Pili and her husband two months before she died.
Sina Pili is charged with manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a minor and persistent nonsupport.
In the other case, 10-year-old Geanna Bradley was found dead in the Wahiawa home of her foster parents in January 2024, bound with duct tape, severely injured and starved.
A medical examiner’s report said Bradley died of “multiple effects of prolonged child abuse and neglect” and “starvation, blunt force injuries due to multiple assaults, prolonged physical restraint and immobilization, pneumonia and medical neglect.”
Police, firefighters and Honolulu Emergency Medical Services paramedics found Bradley’s body Jan. 18, 2024, after they responded to a 911 call from the home.
Her foster parents and grandmother were charged with murder in February 2024, nearly a month after the child’s lifeless body was found emaciated and bruised, with broken teeth, open sores and missing part of her nose.
Brandy Kanani Blas, 35; her husband, Thomas Adam Blas Sr., 40; and Debra D. Geron, 67, were arrested at their home at 33 Karsten Drive in Wahiawa.
All three face charges of second-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of first-degree unlawful imprisonment.
The Blases were charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a minor, and Brandy Blas and Geron were charged with one count of first-degree hindering prosecution.