If the state had followed its laws and administrative rules regarding abused children, Peter Kema Jr. would probably still be alive.
If the state had followed its laws and administrative rules regarding abused children, Peter Kema Jr. would probably still be alive.
That’s the conclusion of a report filed Thursday in Hilo Family Court by Stephen W. Lane, who also pointed to “substantial evidence of colorable claims against the (Department of Human Services/Child Protective Services) and others arising out of the care and treatment” of “Peter Boy” and his siblings.
Lane, a former social worker, foster parent and private investigator, was appointed by Hilo Family Court Judge Henry Nakamoto to determine if Peter Boy’s estate and his siblings had an actionable civil claim for “physical, emotional and/or psychological injury.”
The chronically abused boy was 6 when he disappeared in 1997. His parents, Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema, were indicted for Peter Boy’s murder on April 28, 2016.
Jaylin Kema told authorities the boy died after abuse from his father that resulted in an open, festering arm wound. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Dec. 1 and is set to be released on probation after a year in jail on April 27. In a deal with prosecutors, Peter Kema Sr. pleaded guilty to manslaughter on April 5 and agreed to show authorities where he buried Peter Boy’s body. His sentencing is set for June 9.
Lane’s report chronicled a horrific history of abuse suffered by Peter Boy and his siblings at the hands of Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema. It also documented numerous times the children were returned to the Kemas by CPS workers — even though the children thrived when placed in foster care and with Jaylin Kema’s parents, James Acol and Yolanda Acol, and authorities had numerous warnings the Kemas were unfit parents.
The report also recommended the estate and Peter Boy’s older half-siblings, Allan Acol and Chauntelle Acol, and younger sister, Lina Acol, retain the services of Honolulu attorney Randall Rosenberg, whom Lane wrote “has extensive experience in cases involving child abuse and has obtained excellent results” for past clients.
Lane, who took the case without pay, said Rosenberg has agreed to take the case on a contingency-fee basis, which means lawyers will receive a percentage of a judgment or settlement instead of billing by the hour.
“The biggest takeaway from this, as far as I’m concerned, is the need to have a formal, codified-by-statute provision so that children who are in foster care or who are wards of the state can have access to attorneys when they get hurt,” Lane said Thursday afternoon. “Right now, the best way for a foster-care child or state ward to get a lawyer is to steal a car, and then he gets a public defender. But that doesn’t help him much if he gets hit by a car on the way to school.”
According to the report, Peter Boy suffered from “respiratory distress syndrome with cardiac issues” when he was born on May 1, 1991, and had to be flown to Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, where he was hospitalized for 17 days.
While Peter Boy was in Kapiolani, DHS opened a child-abuse case involving his two older half-siblings after Yolanda Acol reported to police that Chauntelle, 2, had cuts, welts and bruises on her face, and Allan, 4, had facial bruises. Despite a finding by CPS the injuries were “most likely a result of beatings” by Peter Kema Sr., Peter Boy was returned home on May 17, 1991, and Allan and Chauntelle were returned to the Kemas on June 26, 1991.
On Aug. 11, 1991, Jaylin Kema took 3-month-old Peter Boy to the hospital, over Kema Sr.’s objections, and X-rays revealed numerous new and old fractures.
Hospital personnel suspected child abuse and reported their findings to CPS. Peter Sr. and Jaylin Kema denied it.
Allan, Chauntelle, Peter Boy and Lina, born in 1993, were bounced between the Kemas — where physical abuse invariably occurred — foster care and the Acols for the next several years.
The last time James Acol saw Peter Boy was at a family funeral in late 1996 or early 1997 and described him “as having a painful bandaged arm and a bruise on his face.”
Acol attempted to report the abuse to the CPS office in Kona and offered to take a worker to see Peter Boy and his injuries. According to the report, the worker replied, “Sorry Mr. Acol, it’s out of my jurisdiction, it’s a Hilo case. I can’t help you.”
The report said the CPS worker “had a legal obligation to report the allegation of child abuse to CPS and law enforcement, (but) there is no record that any such report was made.”
A 15-year-old cousin of the Kemas told a therapist in April 1997 she saw Peter Boy with an arm fracture caused by Peter Sr. and said the boy had been forced by his father to eat dog feces. The therapist reported the girl’s allegations to DHS on April 4, but a CPS case worker wasn’t assigned until June 1997, and police weren’t notified until June 17, 1997.
“By the time CPS reacted to the April 4 report … it was too late. Peter Boy was dead,” Lane’s report states. “It is probable that had CPS complied with their own standards and protocols and acted on this complaint as the law required, Peter Boy would be alive today.”
The report cited “overwhelming evidence that Peter Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema were unfit, violent and abusive parents,” but the goal of “family reunification … for the majority of the Family Court proceedings” resulted in “the return of Peter Boy from nurturing and loving foster care by the Acols and others to the abuse, starvation and torture in the Kema household.”
Lane said it’s imperative for the state Legislature to pass a law providing civil attorneys for “kids who get hurt in foster care or as wards of the state.”
“The reason I did this pro bono is to bring attention to the need,” he said. “ … This is a protocol that (Honolulu Senior Family Court) Judge Mark Browning adopted only a year ago, to provide lawyers for wards of the state or children in foster care. Nowhere else in the nation does that, except Los Angeles County. And no one in the nation does that by statute. It’s all by administrative court rule.
“And I’m hoping this will demonstrate to the Legislature the need to have this codified by statute.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.