HONOLULU (KITV4) -- The man accused of sexually assaulting a teenager at Ala Moana Center on Presidents' Day, February 21, was released from the Oahu Community Correctional Center on Tuesday after he was bonded out on $500 bail.
Masachiro Asep is charged with three counts of sexual assault in the fourth degree, which is a misdemeanor.
He had been in custody since his arrest and is still awaiting his trial.
Police said Asep, who was 53 years old at the time, fondled a 17-year-old girl in the mall's service corridor to the Makai Market Food Court.
Asep pleaded not guilty in April and requested a jury trial.
On Monday, Circuit Court judge Clarissa Malinao denied the defense's second attempt to dismiss the case based on the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling on State v. Thompson.
More than 1,000 cases across the state, mostly misdemeanors, have been thrown out since last December because of that ruling.
On March 28, Gov. David Ige signed a bill into law that now allows prosecuting attorneys to sign the criminal complaints instead of the victims.
The law is not retroactive, so any case in which a criminal complaint was filed before the law took effect can still use State v. Thompson as an argument.
Asep's criminal complaint was filed on February 22.
Asep's trial date has been pushed back several times. It is now scheduled for November 14.
Marisa Yamane joined KITV4 in January 2022 as an anchor and executive producer. She is an award-winning veteran journalist, who’s spent most of her career in Hawaii. She’s a proud graduate of Iolani School and UCLA.
