Peter Boy siblings await settlement conference in wrongful-death case

A wrongful-death lawsuit over Peter Boy may finally get a real test on July 30, when the surviving siblings and the State of Hawaii are set for a settlement conference before Honolulu Circuit Judge James Ashford. If no agreement is reached, the case is scheduled to go to civil trial on Sept. 28.

For Chauntelle Acol, Allan Acol and Lina Acol, the case is about more than money. The siblings, along with the estate of Peter Kema Jr., known statewide as Peter Boy, are still seeking accountability for what they say was the state’s failure to protect their brother before his death in 1997.

The legal fight has stretched on for years. The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals issued its ruling on Jan. 14, 2025, saying the case should not be dismissed at that stage for lack of standing. The court’s decision followed oral argument in November 2024 and grew out of a June 24, 2021 interlocutory appeal order.

The state argued the siblings filed too late, saying the statute of limitations began when Peter Boy died, not when they later learned more about what happened. The plaintiffs countered that they were minors when he died and that fraudulent concealment and discovery-rule issues prevented an earlier filing.

The timeline in the case remains central to the dispute. Peter Boy was born on May 1, 1991. State social workers received an abuse report on May 8, 1991 involving his two older half-siblings, then another on Aug. 12, 1991 saying the 3-month-old baby had suffered a spiral fracture of his left leg and showed evidence of older fractures. The state closed the protective-services case on Oct. 31, 1995.

Family members later said they last saw Peter Boy at a relative’s funeral on Dec. 14, 1996. Another abuse report reached social workers on April 4, 1997, when a therapist relayed allegations from a 15-year-old relative that Peter Boy had been abused and his arm had been broken. By July 7, 1997, when the family met with Department of Human Services officials, Peter Boy was not among the children present.

The case has remained a painful public marker in Hawaii because it links a family tragedy to state child-welfare oversight. Peter Kema Sr. is serving a 20-year sentence, and Jaylin Kema died in 2019 of kidney failure. With the settlement conference now set, the case may finally move toward closure or into a fall trial that could deepen the record on how the state handled repeated warnings about a vulnerable child.