HILO — A law enforcement officer for the Department of Land and Natural Resources was charged with five counts of sexual assault of a juvenile girl.
Big Island police said Friday a juvenile girl reported that on Jan. 1 a uniformed DLNR enforcement officer, later identified as Ethan S.K. Ferguson, 39, of Hilo, approached her at a remote beach park and sexually assaulted her.
Capt. Robert Wagner of the Criminal Investigation Division said the alleged attack took place about noon in Hilo’s Keaukaha area.
“The beach is often isolated,” Wagner said. “It’s not one of those beach park areas where you constantly have people, not like Four Mile (James Kealoha Beach Park) where you always have lots of people. This is one of those places where sometimes you have lots of people, sometimes you have no people.”
Wagner said the juvenile is a local resident, and she and the DLNR officer were alone on the beach when the attack allegedly occurred. He added the girl and the alleged assailant were not acquainted.
According to Wagner, there was no report of a weapon being used. He declined to comment on whether there was force or the threat of force.
Wagner said the girl was physically uninjured, other than the alleged assault.
Asked how Ferguson was identified, Wagner said, “We did use photo lineups, and he was identified as being on the beach that day. I’m not going to say who identified him, but he was identified.”
Ferguson was arrested Thursday in Hilo and charged Friday with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, and three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor punishable by incarceration up to a year.
Bail was set at $13,000, and Ferguson remained in custody as of Friday afternoon. His initial court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
A check of court records turned up no criminal convictions for Ferguson.
According to a 2014 news report, Ferguson was previously fired from the Honolulu Police Department.
He “was fired in 2013 after he falsified records and lied to investigators about transporting a female runaway, who was underage,” Honolulu online news outlet Civil Beat reported on Feb. 18, 2014.
According to the story, there’s little public information about what Ferguson actually did to get drummed out of the state’s largest law enforcement agency, because the department’s rules required the destruction of police disciplinary files 30 months after the launch of an internal investigation.
Deborah Ward, DLNR spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday afternoon that the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement — which enforces state laws on state land — would cooperate with the Hawaii Police Department criminal investigation as well as conduct its own internal investigation.
Ferguson has been a conservation and resources enforcement officer since June 27, 2013, the statement said. He is still in custody and has been served with a letter of removal of police authority, and is being put on administrative leave with pay, pending adjudication.