HONOLULU — A 45-year-old Kona man admits that he recorded sexually explicit images of a 15-year-old girl and the teen’s 2-year-old daughter.
Michael Phillip Patrakis pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two counts Tuesday of sexually exploiting a minor, one count for each victim. The penalty for each count is a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years and maximum 30, followed by up to lifetime court supervision.
For his part of the plea deal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching said he will ask for a prison term of 18 years at sentencing in June, allow Patrakis to ask for a post-incarceration court supervision period of no more than 10 years and drop three other charges against Patrakis.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment in February 2017 charging Patrakis with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one each of distributing child pornography and sex trafficking of a child.
Patrakis told U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi that he had a consensual sexual relationship with the girl, who told him she was 18 years old.
“I did not know until a month after she moved in” that the girl was 15, Patrakis said.
He said he broke off the relationship when he found out, then resumed it. He also told Kobayashi that when the girl went to work, he watched over her 2-year-old daughter.
The girl and her daughter moved into a rented room in Patrakis’ home starting in March 2015. Patrakis’ minor sons also lived in the home. The teenage girl’s father paid for his daughter’s rent.
The girl told authorities that Patrakis took pictures and video of the two of them having sex and that Patrakis posted the pictures online to meet other people for sex. She also said Patrakis arranged for her to have sex for money through advertisements on Craigslist and that she used some of her share of the money to buy drugs from Patrakis.
Hawaii County police and prosecutors charged Patrakis with promoting child abuse, kidnapping, drug possession and other charges, then turned the case over for federal prosecution.