A state Department of Land and Natural Resources enforcement officer accused of the New Year’s Day rape of a 16-year-old girl on a Hilo beach pleaded not guilty to all charges Tuesday.
Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura ordered 39-year-old Ethan Ferguson of Hilo to appear at 9 a.m. June 6 for trial. Ferguson is charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.
Ferguson was fired as a Honolulu Police Department officer for misconduct in 2012 before his 2013 hiring as a Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) officer by the state, and his case has drawn a great deal of interest from news media statewide.
Ferguson’s attorney, Kanani Laubach, objected to a request by the Tribune-Herald to photograph court proceedings.
“It would severely impact my client’s right to obtain a fair and impartial trial in this circuit, and would necessarily give rise to a motion to transfer (trial to another venue),” Laubach told the judge, who approved the newspaper’s request.
Oahu Publications Inc., the parent company of the Tribune-Herald, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, West Hawaii Today and The Garden Island, petitioned the state Supreme Court on Jan. 22, asking the high court to order Hilo District Judge Barbara Takase to unseal probable cause documents filed by police in the case, and to order Takase “to refrain from future document sealings, in the Ferguson case or in any other criminal proceeding, without first providing notice, an opportunity to be heard, and specific factual findings indicating the reason for preventing public access to presumptively public documents.”
Takase sealed the documents at the request of prosecutors because the minor victim’s name was contained in the filings.
County Prosecutor Mitch Roth later filed redacted versions of the documents after the newspapers reported about the sealing of the documents.
After the redacted documents were released, Jeffrey Portnoy, OPI’s attorney, said the newspaper company still wants the high court to rule. It had not as of Tuesday.
According to the redacted documents, the alleged victim told police a uniformed, on-duty state enforcement officer forced himself on her New Year’s Day after he caught her smoking marijuana at Lalakea Beach Park in Keaukaha.
The girl told police the officer then gave her the option “for payment not to be taken to the police station of either money, drugs or sex,” documents state.
The girl told the officer she didn’t have any money or drugs and was unwilling to have sex, but he forced her, anyway, according to documents.
Ferguson was indicted Jan. 27 by a Hilo grand jury. The state is requesting consideration of extended terms of imprisonment, which means Ferguson could face a 20-year sentence if convicted on both second-degree sex assault charges.
Ferguson, who has been stripped of his police powers and put on paid administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of his case and an internal DLNR investigation, is free on $13,000 bail.
The judge told Ferguson terms of his release include not owning, controlling or possessing firearms or ammunition and turning those items in to police if he has them and to stay away from the victim, her family and other witnesses.
“I’m going to also order that you remain on the island of Hawaii unless you have prior approval from the court to leave,” Nakamura said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
