HILO — Jaylin Kema seemed a tragic figure as she appeared in court Friday in a wheelchair.
Having lost a leg to diabetes, the mother of Peter Kema Jr., aka “Peter Boy,” looked forlorn and a bit lost as newspaper and television cameras documented her initial court appearance in a welfare fraud case that would have escaped scrutiny if her abused, then-6-year-old son hadn’t been missing since 1997 and presumed slain.
The 45-year-old Pahoa woman is charged with second-degree theft, a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. She is accused of collecting more than $17,000 in welfare benefits she wasn’t entitled to “by deception,” between May 2010 and July 15, according to Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville.
Kema appeared in custody in lieu of $5,000 bail.
Kema’s court-appointed attorney, Justin Haspe, objected to media photography — not uncommon for defense attorneys in criminal cases, but his reasoning was novel.
“The nature of the charges before the court today, I don’t believe that they are related to anything else that the media would have any particular interest in,” Haspe told Judge Barbara Takase.
Damerville told the judge Haspe presented “an interesting argument.”
“I think the media will decide what the media’s interested in,” the prosecutor said.
The judge noted Haspe’s objection but allowed photography.
Damerville said an information charge and warrant have been filed, and Kema is scheduled to appear in Hilo Circuit Court for arraignment and plea at 1 p.m. Monday.
“At this time, the state’s going to dismiss without prejudice the (District Court) complaint in this case,” Damerville said, adding he’ll make a notation “with big bold letters that she’s being held on a warrant, so hopefully, there won’t be a mistake on releasing her without posting her bail.”
Two high-profile defendants, Tyler Taylor, since convicted of robbing two tourists as knifepoint, and William Carroll III, facing charges for allegedly vandalizing and stealing the spear of the Kamehameha statue in Hilo, were mistakenly released because of paperwork snafus that occurred when the state Department of Public Safety received dismissal paperwork from District Court before obtaining paperwork on the same charges from Circuit Court.
Kema and her husband, 45-year-old Peter Kema Sr., were both arrested after police and the state Department of Human Services executed a search warrant. Police say they found an unregistered handgun with an altered serial number, plus marijuana and butane honey oil, a marijuana derivative.
Police released Peter Kema Sr. on Friday pending further investigation of possible drug and firearms charges.
Peter Boy became the most infamous missing-child case in Hawaii and police and prosecutors continue to investigate his disappearance as a murder.
“I wouldn’t say it’s not connected,” Damerville said afterwards about the theft case and the Peter Boy investigation. “Anytime there’s an investigation done, if collateral matters come up, and if those collateral matters are, in the view of the prosecutor, crimes, those collateral matters can be charged, and that’s kind of what happened here.
“Law enforcement continues to investigate, and this is a very extensive investigation and a tremendous number of resources have been devoted to it. Anytime in the course of that investigation that a witness or a target or somebody may have committed another crime, that crime is going to be investigated, also.”
Police Lt. Greg Esteban said he’s “very optimistic about the current progress” police and prosecutors are making in the Peter Boy investigation.
“We’ve continued to push this case,” he said. “We’re going to continue to push this case hard.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.