Shocking details of one of Hawai‘i’s most publicized child manslaughter cases—the short and tragic life of Peter J. Kema Jr., “murdered by his parents at six years of age”—are revealed in the second installment of “PETER BOY: Hawai‘i’s Most Notorious Case of Child Abuse and Neglect” now available on Amazon/Kindle, stated today’s press release about the book.
The author is Lillian B. Koller, an attorney in California and Hawai‘i, a former Maui deputy prosecutor and Maui drug court founder, now turned storytelling whistleblower.
Koller also served as Hawai‘i Human Services state director from 2003 to 2010.
“I am deliberately releasing Book 2 of my ‘Peter Boy’ four-book series on the eve of the court sentencing for Peter Boy’s father,” Koller said. “My second ‘Peter Boy’ book exposes the sadistic cruelty of this man, Peter J. Kema Sr., who deserves to rot behind bars, as my books clearly reveal.”
Kema Sr. is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday morning, July 24, 2017.
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Book 2 exposes how Peter Boy’s parents, shortly after a judge reunified this family, heartlessly abused and neglected their little boy. This resulted in Peter Boy’s death, followed by a string of lies his parents told to cover up the murder, the press release said.
Painful details of the relentless child abuse and neglect suffered by all four young children in this family, especially Peter Boy, are revealed in the children’s own words, Koller revealed in the press release.
Book 2 also reveals some of the worst debacles, both human errors and systemic flaws, committed by Child Protective Services, an agency of the Hawai’i Department of Human Services, and others involved in the Peter Boy case.
In 2005, when Peter Boy was already “missing” for eight years and his disappearance was reclassified a homicide starting five years earlier, Koller created shock waves by posting official CPS records on the DHS website.
More than 2,000 publicly disclosed pages revealed the long history Peter Boy’s parents had with Hawai’i’s child protection system from 1991 to 1999.
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Koller said this “system” tried but repeatedly failed to protect Peter Boy and his three young siblings from extreme and prolonged child abuse and neglect.
The Big Island Press Club recognized the significance of Koller’s public disclosure by honoring her with the “Torch of Light” award in 2005 “for making state government more transparent and accountable.”
The first “Peter Boy” book, released in April and recently updated, focuses on the first three months of Peter Boy’s life and what happened after X-rays revealed his extensive and unexplained injuries.
Peter Boy’s parents were his sole caretakers when he sustained three broken ribs, torn ligaments from twisting of limbs, and other injuries to his arms, elbows, shoulders, legs, knees, ribs and hips, the book reveals.
The parents never took responsibility for causing Peter Boy’s injuries, nor for causing facial injuries to his half-siblings: two-year-old Chauntelle and four-year-old Allan, according to Koller.
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Despite many blatant warning signs, DHS/CPS and the “guardian ad litem,” an attorney appointed to ensure these children’s best interests, unaccountably switched from recommending termination of parental rights to pursuing and recommending family reunification, thus joining the unwavering position of Peter Boy’s parents, their attorneys and their CPS-retained psychologist, who always advocated to reunify this family,” Koller discloses in her book series.
The court ordered reunification in 1995, terminating all family supervision and services.
The devastating consequences of that decision, both in terms of harm unforgivably preventable and justice unjustifiably delayed, are the key focus in “Peter Boy,” book 2.
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