Marine accused of “negligence and misconduct” in Hawaii child abuse case

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A military family has filed a lawsuit against the Navy seeking damages after two daycare workers were convicted and sentenced to prison for abusing their daughter at Pearl Harbor. The court documents are damning, and the Navy says it cannot comment on ongoing litigation or its personnel.

The abuse of nearly one-and-a-half-year-old Isabella Kuykendall at the Navy's Ford Island Child Development Center in Pearl Harbor was captured on surveillance camera in 2022. It showed a woman hitting the toddler on the head and hitting her in the face with the child's arm. Another staff member violently shook the child.

Doctors at Kapiolani Medical Center later documented bruising and injuries to Isabella's “face, legs, arms, wrists, back, chest, abdomen and neck.”

The two daycare workers were convicted of third-degree assault in state court and spent several days in jail.

Now the toddler's parents, JD and Kate Kuykendall, have filed a lawsuit against the Navy for damages for “negligence and misconduct.”

“It just hurts so much, feeling like the door is closed and that we are the problem and not these people who actually abused our daughter,” Kate Kuykendall told Hawaii News Now.

“Despite the gravity and obvious nature of these acts, they were systematically

downplayed and mishandled by several government agencies, including the Navy's Family.

Advocacy Program, Child Youth Program and Child Development Center, which the Kuykendalls did not

the risk to her daughter,” the court documents state.

“Federal officials also failed to follow their policies regarding supervision of child care workers,” the documents continue.

“The Navy leadership right at Joint Base Harbor-Hickam failed our daughter and all of these children and families with this cover-up, lies and trivialization of what happened to our daughter,” said Kate Kuykendall.

The family says a Garrison judge attorney told them that “the identified perpetrator should never have been hired by the CDC in the first place due to a failed (or nonexistent) background check.”

Kate Kuykendall also recalled that a representative of the Family Advocacy Program admitted that “some people fall through the cracks who should not have contact with children.”

The family is demanding compensation of an unknown amount.

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