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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Hawaii sexual predator owes victim $2.5 million; prison term extended


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Serial sexual predator Michael Stephens was presented with a $2.5 million court judgment from one of his victims this morning.

Stephens, 58, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for molesting a special-education student here in 1990.

Stephens also pleaded guilty in January to second-degree sex assault of an 18-year old in the early 1990s while he was on probation in the first case.

He received another five-year prison sentence in that case this morning from Circuit Judge Randal Lee.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thalia Murphy said Stephens called "his seduction of young boys a hobby."

Stephens "didn't want to cheat on his girlfriend so he would seduce young boys," Murphy said.

Murphy read a letter from the 18-year-old victim, who is now in his 30s.

The victim said he and his friends in Manoa "thought the defendant was cool" because he would "give them alcohol."

But Stephens is "a sexual predator, a stalker," the victim said.

The victim sued Stephens in 1993 and won a $634,000 judgment against him in 1996.

Stephens fled the state in 1994 and was recaptured last year by federal marshalls in Mexico, where he was living under an alias and operating a restaurant and other business interests.

He said in a court hearing last year that he was "a changed man" and asked Lee to allow him to return to Mexico, where he claimed to be looking after two adopted sons.

"I ask you to let me go home to my family. I ask for your mercy. I'm a changed man," Stephens said in August.

But Lee called Stephens a danger to the community and sentenced him to 20 years behind bars.

At the close of this morning's sentencing, private investigator Steven Lane presented Stephens' attorney, Michael Green, with a copy of the 1996 civil judgment.

With interest compounded annually since the judgment was issued, Stephens owes his victim more than $2.5 million, according to Lane.