A 13-year-old California girl who alleges she was sexually abused by her stepgrandfather in Hawaiian Acres almost six years ago said it took her years to realize it wasn’t her fault.
The alleged victim and her mother, whose identities are being withheld by the Tribune-Herald because the girl is a minor, were interviewed last week after a Hilo grand jury handed down an indictment of Philip Glenn Hutcheson on Sept. 10 of two counts each of first-degree sex assault and third-degree sex assault.
According to the indictment, the 55-year-old Hutcheson allegedly “knowingly engaged” in two incidents of sexual penetration and two incidents of sexual contact with the girl, who was born in October 2000, between Oct. 1-31, 2008. The girl said there were “many more” incidents of prior sexual abuse by the man she knew as “Papa Phil.”
“I was very confused,” she said of her feelings at the time of the alleged occurrences. “… There was a little part of me that knew it was wrong. I just didn’t realize how extremely wrong it was.”
The girl and her mother said Hutcheson was the boyfriend of the girl’s maternal grandmother, but the family maintained a relationship with Hutcheson after he and the grandmother broke up.
They said Hutcheson continued to babysit the girl until she and her mother moved back to California.
“He was there when (the girl) was born. He held her; he raised her as a grandpa,” the girl’s mother said. “… My mom left him and I had to work, so who better to take care of her than somebody who considers her as a grandchild?
“He was babysitting her while I was working (and) that’s when it happened.”
The girl finally told her mother July 15 and they went to authorities in California, who then notified local police.
“When I was talking to the detectives about it, it just kind of clicked that it wasn’t my fault at all,” the girl said. “… It’s a huge weight off your shoulders to tell someone, even though you know it’s hard. … I know I thought he was a good person before but I couldn’t even go back to that state of mind because of the disgust of what he’s done to me.”
The girl’s mother, who told the Tribune-Herald that she herself was molested by a previous boyfriend of her mother when she was 11, said she was “p——d off” and experienced “emotional sadness” when the girl told her what allegedly occurred.
“I’m wondering if there’s more victims,” she said. The mother said she had no previous inkling of the alleged abuse by Hutcheson.
The girl said she’d advise those in situations similar to hers to “just tough it out” and tell a trusted adult.
“You just have to force yourself to say it and not think twice because you’ll talk yourself out of it,” she said.
She said she would testify before a jury if the case goes to trial.
The girl was scheduled to take the witness stand against Hutcheson at a preliminary hearing the same day, but the indictment had already occurred, making the hearing unnecessary.
She said she saw Hutcheson escorted into court and called it “a sense of closure.”
“It was kind of good seeing him in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit and knowing that it’s not going to consume my life anymore,” she said.
First-degree sex assault is a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment and third-degree sex assault is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years incarceration.
A bench warrant set Hutcheson’s bail at $120,000.
He remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
