State agrees to $3.25M settlement with Peter Boy Kema’s siblings
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The state has agreed to apologize and pay $3.25 million to the siblings of Peter “Pepe” Kema to settle a years-long civil lawsuit over the 6-year-old’s tragic death.
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An attorney for the Kema family said the proposed agreement would compensate Chauntelle, Allan, and Lina Acol, who filed the lawsuit against the state in 2018.
The lawsuit was filed after the siblings’ parents admitted in court that Pepe died in 1997 following years of systemic abuse and torture by his father, Peter Kema Sr. The family alleged that the state’s child welfare services had been warned repeatedly that the boy was in extreme danger but failed to protect him.
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Pepe’s disappearance became one of Hawaii’s most notorious missing-child cases. It remained unsolved for nearly two decades before his parents, Kema Sr. and Jaylin Kema, were finally charged and convicted in 2017.
The proposed settlement is not yet final and still requires approval from both the court and the state Legislature.
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