HILO — A Department of Land and Natural Resources enforcement officer accused of raping a 16-year-old girl on a Hilo beach faces a possible 20 years in prison if he is convicted under terms requested by prosecutors.
Ethan Ferguson was indicted Wednesday on two counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. County Prosecutor Mitch Roth declined to say whether the alleged victim testified before the grand jury, citing the confidentiality of proceedings.
The indictment states the 39-year-old Ferguson is subject to sentencing as “a multiple offender in that he may be sentenced to two or more felonies.”
Deputy Prosecutor Haaheo Kahoohalala, who is assigned the case, said prosecutors may not actually seek a 20-year prison term but want the option.
“If we don’t give (the court) notice when we originally charge (the offenses), then we can’t move for it later,” she said.
Second-degree sexual assault is a Class B felony that normally carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, but the multiple offender statute subjects Ferguson to a possible 20 years if he is convicted on both second-degree sex assault charges. Fourth-degree sexual assault is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
The indictment says Ferguson, who was fired for misconduct by the Honolulu Police Department before being hired as an enforcement officer in 2013 by DLNR, subjected the minor “to an act of sexual penetration by compulsion.”
According to redacted court documents, the girl 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 DLNR officer then gave her the option “for payment not to be taken to the police station of either money, drugs or sex,” documents state.
Documents state the teen told the officer she didn’t have money or drugs and was unwilling to have sex with him, but he forced her to perform sexual acts, anyway.
Ferguson is scheduled to make an initial appearance Tuesday in Hilo District Court, but the indictment moves his case to Hilo Circuit Court, where he will be arraigned and plead to the charges after a bench warrant is served.
Ferguson, who is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of his case and an internal DLNR investigation, is free on $13,000 bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
