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Sex offender returns to prison for new sex crime
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Posted on Oct 17 2019
A registered sex offender, who is currently being accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl last year, pleaded guilty Tuesday in the Superior Court and was slapped with a two-year prison term.
Benjamin Mafnas Hattori, 41, pleaded guilty to violation of the Sex Offender Registry and domestic violence: disturbing the peace as part of a plea deal with the government.
Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio sentenced Hattori to three years in prison, with one year suspended, the remaining to be served without the possibility of parole or early release.
Hattori was given credit for time served; he was arrested on Dec. 12, 2018.
After completing his prison term, Hattori will be placed on five years of probation, during which he will be prohibited from having any contact with the girl.
He was required to write a letter of apology to the victim and perform 100 hours of community service. During his probation, he is not allowed to possess or consume any alcoholic beverages.
As part of the plea deal, the remaining charge—sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree— was dropped.
Assistant public defender Stephanie Boutsicaris represented the defendant; assistant attorney general Samantha Vickery prosecuted the case.
Hattori is registered on Saipan as a Tier 3 sex offender. On Nov. 21, 2018, he resided with a woman and her four minor children in Garapan.
According to the plea deal, Hattori entered the victim’s bedroom repeatedly on Nov. 21, 2018, and inappropriately touched her thigh and kissed her cheek, causing the girl to feel scared.
Hattori was convicted in Guam of 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct as a second-degree felony in September 2002. The victim in that case was a 15-year-old girl.
Hattori then relocated to Rota.
In October 2015, a jury acquitted Hattori of burglary, but Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho convicted him of theft and criminal mischief in connection with the burglary of a store on Rota owned by former mayor Melchor Mendiola.
