A 35-year-old Mountain View man accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in Puna is registered as a sex offender in Utah.
According to that state’s registry, Jason Thomas Law was convicted on April 23, 2019, of sexual abuse of a child, a third-degree felony in Utah. He is listed as noncompliant with “location unknown.”
Law was arrested Monday and charged with first- degree sexual assault for an incident that allegedly occurred at about 10 p.m. Sunday in a yurt in Mountain View. The victim told her father and stepmother that Law, who had a calabash uncle relationship with the girl, had touched her genitals while she was sleeping.
According to court documents filed by police, the father confronted Law, and he allegedly replied simply, “What?”
Authorities were notified, and police arrested Law at his workplace in Keaau. A search warrant was served on the residence and among the items allegedly taken by detectives was a secret recording device by Law’s bed.
The victim in the current case was examined by a sexual assault nurse examiner, and Law admitted to an interviewer after initial denials that he had touched the girl inappropriately, according to the documents.
He allegedly told investigators he acted as he did because the girl had confided to him she didn’t have a good relationship with her father, and Law thought acting on his “bad idea” would bring the girl and her father closer together.
Law made his initial court appearance Thursday. Hilo District Judge Ann Datta ordered Law to return to court at 2 p.m. Monday for a preliminary hearing and maintained his bail at $900,000.
According to the March 19, 2015, edition of the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, a Utah newspaper, Law, then 25, faced three counts of first-degree sodomy of a child, plus attempted rape of a child and second-degree sex abuse of a child, all felonies.
The newspaper reported that the charges stemmed “from a number of incidents during which Law provided babysitting.”
“According to police reports, the abuse spanned several years and escalated from touching,” the article stated. There were reportedly two victims, both minors.
It’s unclear whether these were the original charges that resulted in Law’s conviction four years later for sexual abuse of a child.
The current charge Law faces in Hawaii is a Class A felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20-year imprisonment.
Law remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
