LIHU‘E — Michael Timothy Lach, 56, of Kapa‘a, was arrested Friday on a grand jury indictment. He is charged with two counts of sexual assault in the third degree for allegedly sexually assaulting a juvenile female.
LIHU‘E — Michael Timothy Lach, 56, of Kapa‘a, was arrested Friday on a grand jury indictment. He is charged with two counts of sexual assault in the third degree for allegedly sexually assaulting a juvenile female.
The case began with an investigation involving alleged inappropriate touching of the female juvenile by Lach.
The Kaua‘i Police Department’s investigation, included the execution of a search warrant at Lach’s residence, resulted in the recovery and seizure of numerous electronic and storage devices, with electronic data being extracted from the devices.
KPD learned that Lach had been depositing money into the account of the female juvenile for some time, and that a video of the juvenile female was sent to Lach’s private email account.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Keola Siu. The lead investigator is Detective Chad Cataluna of KPD’s Investigative Services Bureau.
Lach was released after posting $20,000 bail.
He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on May 4 in Fifth Circuit Court.
An indictment is an accusation by a grand jury that a crime has been committed. Indicted individuals are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Released on $20K bail” Why? $20K bail is for low level crimes. Does the Judge think the taping of children is the same as let’s say car theft?
Should be $1M with a “No Fly List” to prevent escaping to another country.
Just another example of how our justice system coddles White Men, while putting men of color in jail for life on small time drug charges, if they don’t get executed by the police first.. BTW, I’m a white man. Our system is broken.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that a bail bond is 10 percent of the amount with security measures built in to address flight risk and previous convictions considered.
That said, I do believe that ALL people deserve to be considered innocent until proven guilty and I am a child abuse and rape survivor….
Thanks for mindfulness and outrage, we do need more white guys to point out the irony of these cases on apparent privlidge statistics and change the laws!
Only $20,000 bail, so basically $2,000?? Why???
It’s an indictment. They’re not done gathering information. The search and seizure of “electronic devices” and data almost certainly means that they’re looking to charge him with more than “inappropriate touching of a juvenile”. As soon as footage / images with sexual content, of a juvenile, is sent out via the internet it becomes trafficing in child pornography. Even receiving child porn over the internet without requesting it is illegal. Adding ‘payments’ into this classifies it as prostitution, which minors can’t consent to even where it is legal to participate in.
They’re looking for cause to charge him with bigger crimes, and to find if he’s been sharing child porn with friends or ‘business associates.’
As for being a flight risk, I’m sure the humor was unintentional. But … Hawai’i? Islands? If he managed to get past the COVID restrictions and fly out, there’d be an enforcement welcoming committee when he landed wherever he went. And more charges starting with failure to appear. Let him make bail and watch what he does is strategic, not negligent.