The trial for Jaylin Kema, who is accused of welfare fraud, has been rescheduled to July 18 after she missed the start of her trial Monday. ADVERTISING The trial for Jaylin Kema, who is accused of welfare fraud, has been
The trial for Jaylin Kema, who is accused of welfare fraud, has been rescheduled to July 18 after she missed the start of her trial Monday.
The 45-year-old Pahoa woman is charged with second-degree theft for allegedly collecting $17,000 in public assistance benefits she wasn’t entitled to between 2010 and 2015. Her attorney told the court that she missed the start of her trial because she thought it was starting later in the day.
Kema is the mother of Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr. whose disappearance in 1997 ignited a statewide media firestorm. Peter Boy’s father, Peter Kema Sr., 45, said he gave away the then-6-year-old-boy to an “Aunty Rose Makuakane” on Oahu. The alleged hanai mother couldn’t be found and police and prosecutors are investigating the case as a murder.
No body has been found and no charges have been filed in the Peter Boy investigation.
Kema, who lost part of a leg to diabetes, appeared in court in a wheelchair with a small dog.
