Dad accused of punching his daughter acquitted

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has acquitted Patrick Norita Dowai of charges that he repeatedly punched his 16-year-old daughter and grabbed her hair when she returned home at 2am.

At a bench trial on Monday, Camacho granted assistant public defender Matthew Meyer’s motion to acquit Dowai, 58, after the government rested its case.

Camacho ruled that the government has failed to prove the charge of assault and battery beyond a reasonable doubt.

“For sure, something happened on that night. Whether what happened was criminal—maybe. But ‘maybe’ is not what the Constitution requires. The Constitution requires ‘firmly convince beyond a reasonable doubt,’” the judge said.

In this case, Camacho said, Dowai was in the process of disciplining his 16-year-old daughter for coming home at 2am, spanked her back twice while trying to spank her buttocks and inadvertently grabbed her hair while trying to steady her.

For some parents, Camacho said, the situation might not even register as something to warrant discipline.

Camacho said the law, however, allows a parent in the process of disciplining a child to administer corporal punishment.

The judge said the prosecution has not shown that the father went far beyond the level of acceptable, reasonable, and traditional punishment.

Camacho said Dowai has rules that his daughters are not allowed to have boyfriends until they finish high school and college.

Dowai found out that his daughter has a boyfriend.

On May 9, 2015, the daughter asked if she could go to the Taste of the Marianas. Dowai agreed only if one of his elder sons will chaperone and make sure that they return before midnight.

At the Taste of the Marianas, the daughter met with the boyfriend. The elder son returned home without his sister. Dowai instructed his son to go and bring the daughter home. At 2am, the daughter arrived alone without the elder brother.

Dowai was upset and lectured his daughter and attempted to discipline her by spanking her using an open hand.

Camacho said the daughter testified that she moved her body and in the process was hit in the back. Dowai again tried to spank her but she moved her body and got hit in the back again.

The judge said the daughter testified that at some point, her father grabbed her hair. She told the court that her father held on to her hair to steady her.

The daughter testified that she did not require any medical care or treatment, and at some point she went to bed. She did not think the situation warranted calling the police.

Later that same night, Dowai’s wife came home and after the daughter told her about what happened, she called the police and had criminal charges filed against him.

In Dowai’s motion for judgment of acquittal, assistant public defender Meyer said it is a privilege for parents to discipline their children within certain parameters. The facts showed that Dowai acted well within those parameters, he said.

Citing the girl’s testimony that she was hit with open hands, Meyer said it would be a different matter if Dowai hit her with fists.

In the government’s opposition to the motion, assistant attorney general Chester Hinds said the defendant’s actions stopped being discipline and became assault and battery, somewhere after he already punched her, hit her with a scrub, and threatened her with a bench, and along the way having her massage his feet in between.

Hinds also noted that it was the victim’s mother that called the police.

Hinds said it might be argued that the victim did not have any visible injuries and therefore did not suffer bodily injury.

On the other hand, the prosecutor said, the level of injury should not be an issue in this case as visible injuries or substantial injuries are not required under assault and battery.