LIHU‘E — In a scene usually reserved for television dramas and not the tiny courtroom of Fifth Circuit Court, Kekaha charter-school administrator Hedy Sullivan was sentenced to one year in prison and five years’ probation for the assault on her
LIHU‘E — In a scene usually reserved for television dramas and not the tiny courtroom of Fifth Circuit Court, Kekaha charter-school administrator Hedy Sullivan was sentenced to one year in prison and five years’ probation for the assault on her then 11-year-old, adopted son.
The courtroom was jammed with dozens of adults, taking every available seat, and others standing where there was room. Outside, other adults who couldn’t fit inside, and children clad in the purple and white of the Kekaha Charter school, Kula Aupuni Ni‘ihau A Kahelelani Aloha (KANAKA), apparently missing school to offer their support of Sullivan, lined the hallways and spilled into the foyer of the courthouse.
At the center of the storm was the diminutive Sullivan, clad in KANAKA colors as well, with a flowing, floor-length mu‘umu‘u and her hair held up with fresh flowers.
Facing a maximum of 10 years in prison for two counts of second-degree assault, Sullivan, 56, of Kekaha, spent much of the hearing sitting down, first listening to three of her supporters, and then to a letter written by the victim.
While her supports described her wonderful work with children and her important place in the Kekaha and Ni‘ihau communities, her adopted son, the victim in the case, painted a far different picture.
The boy, in a letter read by his therapist, Fran Tyson, described a pattern of frequent abuse that included physical torture such as repeated attempted drownings in the bathtub, and once in the dog’s bowl.
He continued that Sullivan tried to cut off his tongue with scissors, from which he still has a scar. He also said his adopted mother scarred his leg by pouring hot water on it, and tied him up whenever she left the house.
His letter continued that he was forced at points to share a bed with Sullivan’s incontinent mother, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s.
“She began to abuse me in the fourth grade,” wrote the boy in a letter, read by his counselor. When St. Theresa’s School officials noticed the abuse, he said, he was pulled out of school, and home-schooled.
Prosecutors said that Sullivan was arrested in 2002 for second-degree assault, but the case was never pursued.
The two assault charges stem from Sullivan’s assertion that she hit her boy with an instrument, and tied him up. While Sullivan claims it was a stick, the boy asserts he was hit with a baseball bat he found in a nearby cane field.
When the boy was found by police in April 2004, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Winn said, he had a black eye, swollen hands, abrasions on his neck, bruises covering his legs, arms, thighs, and chest. He was tied up with shoelaces, with his hands behind his back.
The cord was so tight that police could not untie the ropes, and had to cut them off, Winn said.
The boy told police and social workers he was beaten multiple times with the bat, and that Sullivan swung him around with a cord behind his back, Winn said.
“Three strikes and she’s out,” the boy wrote. “I hope to live a better life, and I hope I never see that evil woman again.”
The boy is now in a group home, and another boy adopted by Sullivan is in a foster home.
While the boy’s letter was read, Sullivan remained seated, staring straight ahead.
But when she had a chance to speak, prior to the letter being read, Sullivan broke down before composing herself.
“I feel deep remorse, regret,” Sullivan said. “I take the fullest responsibility for my own true actions.”
Continuing that the incident was a “heartbreaking” mistake, Sullivan said her life is forever changed.
“I have lost my sons, lost my family life,” she said. “Give me a chance to” get back the life God gave.
Her attorney William Feldhacker, said that while there are no excuses for Sullivan’s actions, there are reasons.
One “reason is the total misunderstanding on how to handle a child,” Feldhacker said. “I’m sure he didn’t understand the problems he has.
“Prior to this event,” Feldhacker said, Sullivan “found him trying to set fire to the propane tanks outside the home.”
He continued that his client couldn’t have struck the boy in the head with a baseball bat, since the bones of the eye socket are delicate and would have fractured if the boy’s details of the incident were accurate.
“He’s badly bruised, yes,” but no bones were broken, and he had no lacerations, the lawyer said. “She struck her son with a stick, not a baseball bat.”
Sullivan was also supported by three testimonies, from her psychologist, the Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and her hanai brother, who asked the court for leniency.
Her psychologist, Dr. Robert Horn, testified that he started treating her in April, 2004, for “profound feeling of remorse and guilt” surrounding the assault.
“She had intense remorse over the physical discipline of the child,” he continued. “She has never excused her behavior.”
But, he said, “the loss of temper and control has happened to every parent,” even if to a lesser degree.
He also said she has made great progress in treatment, and that no benefit would occur by putting her in jail, especially since she is the primary caregiver of her sick mother.
Donald Cataluna, the OHA trustee, said Sullivan “has much concern and compassion,” and “deep aloha, for Ni‘ihau children.”
He added that he has seen Sullivan’s remorse first hand, and added that the child had some difficulties that preceded the beating.
Lance Hanohano, Sullivan’s hanai brother, spoke of her compassion and nurturing.
“Anything she did, she did out of love, what she thought was best for them,” he said. “She’s a wonderful mom, and (jail will be) a great loss for more people.”
Circuit Court Judge George M. Masuoka said he was swayed by Sullivan’s supporters.
Saying that his first impulse was to give her 10 years’ imprisonment, Masuoka said, “considering the input from the community, the court gave way.
“The court cannot forgive what you did,” Masuoka added. “Nothing justifies what you did.”
Continuing that he believes the sentence is justified, and that some may disagree, “those who don’t like it, don’t like it.”
County prosecutors are one group who didn’t like Masuoka’s decision.
“I was very disappointed,” said Winn. “More than that, I was sad. I was sad at the message (the victim) received as a result of it.”
Winn, whose voice cracked a number of times during her address to the court while seeking five years imprisonment, said she was even more saddened that Sullivan had so many supporters in court, and very few came to support the scared, 11-year-old boy who dialed 9-1-1 with his hands tied behind his back.
“The case was a heartbreaker,” she added.
When addressing the court, Winn said that the victim’s Child and Protective Services case worker described the victim’s case as “the worst case of physical abuse” in the worker’s 20 years at CPS.
“Nothing warrants what she did,” she added in court.
Masuoka also ordered Sullivan to pay $4,350 in fines and fees, perform 1,000 hours of community service, and undergo substance-abuse and mental-health evaluations. She was also ordered to complete an angermanagement program.
He gave her three days, until this Friday, April 29, at 5 p.m., before she is to report to jail.
After court, the throng of Sullivan supporters sang and prayed with her on the lawn fronting the historic County Building.
In January, the charter-school board decided to retain Sullivan, even though community members urged the 11-member board to remove her.
Sullivan’s personal activities at home had no bearing on her work at the school, Lehua Kanahele, president of the school’s board, said at the time.
Kanahele did not return a phone call seeking comment, and a message left at the school went unreturned as well.
The charter-school’s board makes its own personnel decisions because the school is not directly administered by the state Department of Education or state Board of Education.
KANAKA’s roughly 35 students in kindergarten through 12th grade come from families with ties to Ni‘ihau.
