Jiu-jitsu champion pleads not guilty in alleged assault of off-duty Maui officer

PUKALANI (HawaiiNewsNow) – A four-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion pleaded not guilty Thursday to assaulting an off-duty Maui police officer in a dispute that began over baby ducks.

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Penny Thomas, 46, stayed silent as her attorney, Erik Johnson, entered the plea before Judge Christopher Dunn.

“Enter a not guilty plea and invoke her right to a jury,” Johnson said.

Thomas, a fourth-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, is accused of punching Maui police Lt. Jan Pontanilla multiple times in the face in front of Pontanilla’s home in Pukalani in April.

“I still have sleepless nights because of this incident. I can still see her face. Her eyes looking at me down,” said Lt. Pontanilla’s mother Diane.

Dispute began over baby ducks

Diane said Thomas lives down the street from them and that Thomas’ daughter was feeding baby ducks outside their home one day.

“I said, ‘Were you folks, were you the kids that were handling the baby ducks the day before?’ And she told me, ‘Yes.’ I said,” Okay, just to let you know that they’re weak, they’re newborn, and that the mama may abandon them if you carry them and they may die.’ So, the girl just said, “Okay,’” she said.

She said she thought it was a harmless conversation until about 45 minutes later.

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“This lady pulls up with her car and she’s screaming and swearing at me, ‘Who the F do you think you are,’” said Diane.

The Pontanillas said their daughter Jan heard the commotion and ran outside and tried to calm Thomas down.

“She turned around, and from there, the lady swung, and she used physical force. Her right hand was the first one that struck my daughter in the temple. Then she swung her left hand, which struck my daughter on her right side of the face, and then the right side again, using her right hand. My daughter said, ‘Calm down. I am a police officer.’ Her reaction was, which was instant, ‘I don’t give an F if you’re a cop’ and she swung again,” said Andy Pontanilla, the officer’s father.

Thomas was arrested for assault against a police officer.

Prosecutors charged her with assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor, because Pontanilla was not on duty.

Thomas is out on $1,000 bail.

“She’s a disgrace to the art of jiu-jitsu,” Andy said. “All those training went down the drain. Her instructor should be very, very disappointed in her. I would not let my kids learn under people like that cause you’re teaching violence before the true meaning of self-defense.”

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Both Thomas and her attorney declined to be interviewed.

She is due back in court next week.