John Tucker Sentencing Postponed Until June

The sentencing of Pahoa resident John Tucker in federal court has been postponed.

Tucker, 57, had been scheduled for sentencing today in Honolulu before US District Judge Susan Oki Mollway.

It has been rescheduled for June 3 at 2:15 p.m.

Tucker’s attorney, Brian De Lima, said the court postponed the sentencing because of a busy calendar.

Prosecutors on March 25 filed a sentencing statement which has been sealed by the court.

Tucker pleaded guilty Jan. 17 to a county of producing child pornography. As part of Tucker’s plea arrangement, five identical charges were dropped.

Tucker was accused in October of sexually molesting two children in the Leilani Estates bed-and-breakfast owned by his family.

Tucker faces a heightened sentence of between 15 and 30 years in federal prison.

Except for certain, rare circumstances, there is no parole in the federal  prison system.

According to Tucker’s plea document, the heightened sentence is based on the nature of the offense, which included the involvement of minors, a sexual act and distribution of the image.

In pleading guilty, Tucker admitted that in 2008 he took a picture of himself “engaged in sexual explicit contact” with two minors under the age of 12 at his residence.

Tucker’s arrest came after the FBI publicly circulated pictures of Tucker with portions of the photo blacked out.

The agency said the photos were originally posted to the internet in 2010 and had been discovered during an unrelated investigation by the FBI in Arizona.

Agents had traced the photos to the Big Island after identifying an image of a 2008 Hawaii County telephone book in the background of one of the photos.