A 16-year-old boy has been ordered to serve a year at the youth prison for his role in the controversial Waikele beating case.

The youth also was ordered by Family Court District Judge Jennifer Ching to perform 100 hours of community service, pay the state for his anger management classes and write a letter of apology to an Army man and his wife injured in the Feb. 19 incident.

The finding was handed down after a trial Tuesday in confidential Family Court proceedings in which Ching found that the teenager violated the second-degree assault law. City prosecutors had asked that the teenager be sent to the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua until he turned 19. The one-year prison term took into account the youth's admission that he stole a bag on the beach from a tourist about a year ago.

The teen's lawyer, Jeffrey Hawk, had asked that the boy be placed on probation. The boy's aunt, Leina'ala Baker, who was appointed by the judge as the boy's guardian because his mother was a witness in the case and could not sit in on the proceedings, criticized the judge's findings and said he should have gotten probation.

"They threw the book at him," Baker said. "They made him into a monster."

Jim Fulton, executive assistant at the city prosecutor's office, said he cannot comment because the case is being handled in confidential Family Court proceedings.

Andrew and Dawn Dussell, the couple beaten in the Waikele Shopping Center parking lot, could not be reached for comment.

Hawk declined to comment on the reaction of his client to the case, but Todd Eddins, attorney for the father, said the parents are "devastated that their child is going to be locked up for a long period of time."

If convicted of second-degree assault in adult court, a defendant could face up to five years in prison.

Dussell, 26, who served two Army tours in Iraq, and his wife Dawn, 23, a Hawai'i Pacific University student, were assaulted in the Waikele parking lot after the Dussells' SUV scraped the Pa'akaulas' parked car, according to police. The teenager's father, Gerald Pa'akaula, was charged with assaulting the couple. His son was charged with assaulting Andrew Dussell.

FATHER ALSO ACCUSED

In an earlier hearing involving Gerald Pa'akaula, prosecutors said the father punched Dawn Dussell in the face and slammed her to ground. He also punched the husband in the face and head and kicked him when he was down, according to prosecutors. His son also kicked Andrew Dussell when he was on the ground, prosecutors have said.

Both of the Dussells lost consciousness with Andrew Dussell getting a tooth knocked out and appearing to go into convulsions, prosecutors said.

The boy has been in custody since his arrest the day of the assault but will not get credit for his seven weeks in custody. His one-year term starts this week.

The youth was charged in Family Court with assaulting Andrew Dussell, while the father is awaiting trial on charges of assaulting both Dussells. Pa'akaula's trial date is scheduled for May 29.

The case drew widespread attention because the youth was accused of calling Andrew Dussell a "f------ haole" before the assault took place.

City prosecutors declined to file hate crime charges, saying the assaults were a road rage case that did not fit under the state's hate crime law that covers assailants targeting victims based on race or ethnicity.

Baker, 38, a Wai'anae resident and a supervisor of sales for a food distribution company, said she was speaking out because the incident has been mischaracterized as pitting Hawaiians against Caucasians.

She said both the father and her nephew are part Caucasian.

Her nephew was upset because the Pa'akalulas' car was scraped by the Dussells' vehicle as it drove into a parking stall, and again as the Dussells pulled into reverse, Baker said. She said that when her nephew approached the Dussells to ask what they were doing, they started laughing at him.

The nephew thought that the SUV was going to leave, Baker said. That's when words were exchanged and the boy uttered the "haole" remark, she said.

"This is not their characteristic," she said of assertions that the family is racist. "They're a loving and caring, tight family who would never do this, unless provoked."

CHILD WAS PRESENT

Baker said the altercation occurred after Dawn Dussell hit the youth.

The Dussells had not only their 3-year-old child with them, but they were accompanied that day by Andrew Dussell's friend, another Army man, Baker said.

She said her nephew was only trying to protect his father, who was being held by a passerby. The boy thought Andrew Dussell was getting up when the teenager kicked him in the face, she said.

Baker, who said the boy was remorseful and apologized, believes probation for the single kick would have been more appropriate.

The boy's mother, Joreen, who was at the scene, earlier acknowledged that her son made the "haole" remark and said he regrets it.

Juvenile court proceedings do not have terms such as guilt as in adult courts. Rather, the minors are found to have violated laws.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.