A Fifth Circuit Court jury listened Tuesday to a girl’s testimony that her step-father sexually assaulted her over a three-year period. The girl, now 13 and living in Washington, alleged that Clyde Okada assaulted her from the time she was
A Fifth Circuit Court jury listened Tuesday to a girl’s testimony that her step-father sexually assaulted her over a three-year period.
The girl, now 13 and living in Washington, alleged that Clyde Okada assaulted her from the time she was 10 years old until she and her mother moved out of the family home early last year.
Originally, a grand jury last summer indicted Okada on more than 100 counts of sexual assault. But the Kaua’i County prosecuting attorney went forward on only 21 counts.
Okada, free on his own recognizance, faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted on one or more of the charges .
On the first day of testimony in his trial, Okada sat scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad while his step-daughter made her claims against him under gentle questioning by chief deputy prosecutor Craig De Costa.
Throughout her testimony, the girl smiled nervously and alternated between looking at her questioner and looking down at her hands twisting nervously on her lap.
The case came to light after the girl, then 12, told a friend in Waimea that her step-father “was touching me sexually.”
That friend told the alleged victim’s mother, Wendy Okada, who also testified Tuesday.
The alleged victim also claimed she was molested by Clyde Okada’s father, now deceased, during the same two to three-year period. Those alleged offenses were not charged, since the step-grandfather died in 1999.
Under cross-examination from one of Clyde Okada’s attorneys, Mark Zenger, Wendy Okada admitted she didn’t move out of her husband’s home because of her daughter’s allegations. The woman, who said she now lives in Oregon, testified that in February 2000 she moved in with a Waimea man she had met two weeks previously, and that her daughter, the alleged victim, moved with her.
She testified that she and her husband “had not communicated in some time” before she moved out.
By April of last year, the alleged victim had been placed in a foster home by Child Protective Services.
The couple also had two sons together who were also removed and placed in a foster home by CPS, according to Wendy Okada.
Clyde Okada quietly watched as his wife of almost 11 years testified about his alleged conduct.
The couple’s divorce has not been finalized.
Okada is not slated to testify in his own behalf, although he has that right, according to Zenger.
Five more witnesses were slated to testify in the next two days, including medical personnel, police officers and Clyde Okada’s mother, who also lived in the family home during the years when the alleged offenses transpired.
The Okada family owned and operated Yumi’s, a Waimea restaurant that closed in December 1999.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
