HILO — A woman who was a minor when she was sexually assaulted by an on-duty state Department of Land and Natural Resources enforcement officer two years ago on a Hilo beach is suing the officer, since fired, and the state agency.
The civil suit, filed Dec. 27 in Hilo Circuit Court by attorneys Brian De Lima and Jeremy Butterfield, accuses the former Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officer, 41-year-old Ethan Ferguson, of assault, battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
DLNR is accused in the complaint of negligent hiring, retention and/or supervision of Ferguson, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The victim, whom the the newspaper isn’t identifying, is seeking unspecified general and special damages from both defendants, and punitive damages from Ferguson.
A Hilo jury took less than three hours to convict Ferguson of two counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault for the Jan. 1, 2016, attack at Lalakea Beach Park in Hilo’s Keaukaha neighborhood. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and is incarcerated at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona.
Ferguson will be required to register as a sex offender following his release from prison.
During the trial, the victim, who was 16 when the incident took place, testified that Ferguson took a pipe containing marijuana from her, led her to a secluded area at one end of the park, and gave her the options of “money, drugs or sex” to not arrest her.