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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, April 6, 2010

No contest plea in girl's death


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Michael D.D. Clark

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Makamae Auli'i Ah Mook Sang

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A 25-year-old man who supplied drinks to a teenage girl who died of alcohol poisoning last year will serve a year in prison and pay $10,000 in fines under a plea agreement reached in court this morning.

Michael D.D. Clark of Hawai'i Kai pleaded no contest to five counts of serving alcohol to minors and guilty to earlier, unrelated charges of terroristic threatening and assault.

Clark entered the pleas in a court hearing before Circuit Judge Richard Pollack.

He and his attorneys left court without comment.

Makamae Auli'i Ah Mook Sang, 15, of Papakōlea, died of acute alcohol poisoning after attending a party at Clark's home on July 30, 2009.

The Roosevelt High School student had a blood alcohol level of .433, the equivalent of drinking a pint of vodka in an hour, according to authorities.

Family and friends of the victim left court today declining to comment.

"The family, they're being patient about it," Deputy Prosecutor Rich Stacey said. "It's never going to bring their daughter back. It's a very hard case."

The plea agreement "guaranteed jail and guaranteed convictions on all counts," he said. We took this case very seriously. Although it's not a murder case, a girl died, and that affects all of us."

Clark pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor counts of serving alcohol to minors and will be fined $2,000 per count.

Regarding the earlier case, Clark pleaded guilty to first-degree terroristic threatening, a felony, as well as misdemeanor assault.

Those charges grew from an altercation Clark had with police officers and an employee at the Ala Moana Hotel on July 22, 2007, according to court records.

In the alcohol poisoning case, one of Clark's attorneys said earlier that the defendant did not know how old Ah Mook Sang was or how much liquor she had consumed.

"He has deep remorse about what happened," defense lawyer Brook Hart said last year.

Stacey said the case sends a message "to anybody out there having these kinds of parties that you better think twice." And parents whose children are "going to a party, you better be careful."