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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 23, 2010

Nurse guilty of molestation


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Mark Genetiano

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A man accused of molesting four elderly women at a Kāhala retirement home pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to six counts of third-degree sexual assault.

Mark Genetiano, 24, will be sentenced by Circuit Judge Karen Ahn on March 29.

Genetiano, a certified nursing assistant, fondled women ranging in age from 89 to 92 years old and who suffer from dementia.

The offenses occurred from from April through early June of last year.

Prosecutors said all the victims were "mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless."

Genetiano admitted assaulting two of the women more than once.

He faces up to five years in prison on each count.

Genetiano was fired soon after the allegations arose.

According to a police affidavit, three of Genetiano's co-workers reported that he pinched the patients' private parts while they were changing clothes or in the bathroom. The co-workers said the women tried to fend off his advances by waving their arms and yelling at him to stop, and that Genetiano laughed at them, the affidavit said.

Because the alleged victims suffer from dementia, they were unable to recall the events, a co-worker told police.