LIHU‘E — A 5th Circuit Court judge said Monday that Leonard Alpeche Jr. will answer to his 16 charges in August, including kidnapping and multiple counts of sexual assault. On Monday morning, Judge Kathleen Watanabe reset Alpeche’s trial for Aug.
LIHU‘E — A 5th Circuit Court judge said Monday that Leonard Alpeche Jr. will answer to his 16 charges in August, including kidnapping and multiple counts of sexual assault.
On Monday morning, Judge Kathleen Watanabe reset Alpeche’s trial for Aug. 8 and a pre-trial on July 13. The 27-year-old man’s trial originally was set for Monday, but was moved following a pretrial late last month.
Dressed in an orange Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center scrubs, Alpeche appeared in court with public defender John Calma.
He faces 16 charges in connection with the sexual assault of a Kapa‘a woman. They include three counts of second-degree sexual assault, one count of fourth-degree sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and 11 counts of second-degree extortion. Kaua‘i police arrested him Jan. 5.
The woman contended that Alpeche befriended her on Facebook with a false identity, convinced her to send him modeling pictures and then lured her to a park where she was told a photographer would take pictures of her. She alleges that the photographer, whom she later identified as Alpeche, forced her to have sex with him.
Alpeche is being held in lieu of $465,000 bail.
