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An Oahu man found guilty in August of sexually assaulting two children he was babysitting was sentenced to five years in prison in Honolulu District Court on Wednesday.
Casey Nishimura was found guilty Aug. 24 of three counts of third-degree sexual assault and two counts of attempted third-degree sexual assault in independent cases involving two girls who were 11 and 13 at the time.
The incidents took place in 2014 and 2016.
The jury took less than two hours to render a guilty verdict on all five class C felony counts, each of which potentially carried a maximum five-year sentence. Rochelle Vidinha, the deputy prosecuting attorney, asked that the sentences be carried out consecutively out of concern Nishimura would reoffend.
Nishimura was previously described as a family friend who babysat the two girls while their mother was off-island helping her ailing father.
“What this defendant did was prey upon two girls in the safety of their home,” Vindinha said to Judge Rowena Somerville. Once the elder girl withdrew from Nishimura after repeated offenses, he turned his attention to her younger sister, Vindinha said.
“Because of his demeanor and his personality, it is likely that he would be allowed access to other children in our community in the future, and thereby reoffend,” Vindinha said
Somerville instead sentenced him to concurrent sentences — effectively a five-year prison term — and credited him for time served. Nishimura was also ordered to pay $4,963 in restitution, as well as another $1,000 in fees to victim funds.
During sentencing Somerville repeatedly noted that Nishimura had failed to show remorse for his crimes or empathy for the victims. She noted the crimes involved “multiple victims, multiple offenses.”
Nishimura was immediately taken into custody, although his attorney, William Harrison, said an appeal is planned.
The victims’ father read a statement before the court that his children continued to suffer because of the protracted case.
“Our daughters deserve normalcy,” the father said. “It’s evident that the defendant has learned nothing from this ordeal, and it’s time for accountability to be served.”
Vidinha read an excerpt from the elder girl’s victims statement.
“I am currently mourning my childhood, of the childhood I could have had,” she wrote. “My life has been a never-ending uphill climb. Every time I move into the next phase of my life, I had to be ripped back and relive the worst moments of my childhood where I was molested.”
Civil Beat does not reveal the identity of victims of sexual assault.
Extended Delay And Possible Civil Lawsuit
Nishimura’s trial was initially scheduled for March 12, 2018, but it was rescheduled 17 times over the next six years.
He was free on a $50,000 bail during that period and he received permission from presiding judges to travel to the mainland six times, once staying on Disneyland Drive in Anaheim.
In October 2022 his lawyer moved to dismiss the indictment as “defective” by arguing the prosecutors had not given his client sufficient notice of the charges because they “did not specify the nature and context of the alleged ‘sexual assault.’” The court later denied the motion.
In a separate court motion against him and Manoa Valley Church in May, Nishimura is alleged to have sexually assaulted a pair of sisters while at summer church sleepovers in 2001 and 2007. The sisters were between the ages of 5 and 7 at the time of the alleged assaults.
The court approved a motion allowing a civil lawsuit to proceed and granting the now-adult sisters Jane Doe aliases. However, the civil lawsuit has not yet been filed and Keani Alapa, the attorney representing the sisters, did not respond to calls for comment.
Leighton Hara, an attorney representing the church, declined to comment on the case and wrote in an email that “it’s important to clarify that Manoa Valley Church has no current knowledge of any ‘ongoing claim’ involving Mr. Nishimura.”
Prosecutors attempted to use the Manoa Valley Church accusations as evidence in the criminal trial, but the court ruled the allegations inadmissible.
Before his 2017 indictment, Nishimura volunteered for three seasons as the assistant coach for the University of Hawaii women’s cross country and track and field teams.
UH spokesperson Dan Meisenzahl said in May that nothing about Nishimura’s time at the university had come to light and said Wednesday in an email that “UH has no comment on the court case or sentencing.”
Nishimura also coached at Hawaii Pacific University and Mid-Pacific Institute, where he had gone to school.
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