Judge dismisses Makanani rape case

LIHUE — A Fifth Circuit Judge on Tuesday dismissed a case against a Kauai Community Correctional Center inmate accused of raping a woman while out of prison on a work release program.

Stephen Makanani, 33, was indicted by a grand jury in December and charged with first-degree sexual assault for an incident that allegedly took place in August. Makanani admitted to having sex with the woman but has maintained the affair was entirely consensual.

Prosecutors sought an extended sentence for Makanani, who has previously been convicted of nine felonies in five different cases, but Tuesday, after nearly five months of pretrial litigation, the case was thrown out due to procedural mistakes made by prosecutors during grand jury proceedings in December.

Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe ruled that statements Makanani made to police were inadmissible in court because the KPD detective questioned Makanani without properly informing him of his right to remain silent. Because the grand jury’s decision was based in part on those statements, the indictment was also dismissed, and with it, the entire case against Makanani.

Makanani’s attorney, Craig De Costa, said his client was interviewed by police about the alleged rape as part of an investigation to determine whether he had violated the conditions of his work release program. Because he was questioned in regards to employment, rather than as part of a criminal investigation, De Costa said his client was compelled to answer, meaning that when those statements were later submitted as evidence to the grand jury, prosecutors violated Makanani’s right to a fair trial.

In a motion to dismiss the indictment, De Costa successfully argued that prosecutors presented “compelled and inadmissible statements” during grand jury proceedings and that prosecutors elicited those statements “solely to label” Makanani “a liar” without adding proper context or asking the KPD detective who testified before the grand jury to go into his findings, effectively preventing the jurors from reaching a fair and impartial decision.

Makanani was serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of motor vehicle theft in November 2017 — the state had requested a 20-year sentence because the car theft was committed just months after Makanani finished serving a previous five-year term for unrelated crimes.

In August 2018, after less than a year in prison, Makanani was allowed to participate in a work furlough program, offered by the Hawaii Department of Public Safety as “an authorized, unescorted, temporary leave of absence from the institution,” intended to provide convicts with opportunities to socialize and prepare for reintegration to society prior to parole.

Makanani’s participation in the program came despite what the prosecuting attorney’s office described as “the state’s strong objection,” due to Makanani’s relatively extensive criminal history.

Makanani will still likely face charges related to the alleged sexual assault. According to Kauai County Prosecutor Justin Kollar, prosecutors will simply refile the case and start the process over again.

“This is a bump in the road but nothing we haven’t seen before,” Kollar said in an email Tuesday.