A former Family Court marshal originally accused of sex trafficking a child was given a 180-day jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to a count of attempted pandering.
Bryce Tokunaga, 32, was arrested last year and faced charges of first-degree kidnapping of a minor and sex trafficking a child under 18. He made his guilty plea to the lesser charge in November.
At the time of his arrest, a court spokesperson said Tokunga had been recently hired as a marshal and was still in a training program. District Judge Tara Clark Newberry said he had previously worked as a juvenile probation officer.
“This is a very difficult case,” Clark Newberry said. “It is outrageous. It shocks the conscience.”
In February 2024, police stopped Tokunaga’s car near Tropicana and Polaris avenues, an area known for prostitution. He told police he was a marshal and was dating the 17-year-old sitting in his passenger seat. The officer who stopped his car believed prostitution might be involved.
Tokunaga denied paying the girl for sex or having any knowledge that she was working as a prostitute, but police said text messages showed he facilitated her engagement in prostitution.
“I was trying to make sure she’s safe,” Tokunaga told the court, adding that he wanted to help the girl have a better future.
Defense attorney Jess Marchese said the case was “a little bit overblown.” Tokunaga was a naive, lonely man used by the girl, he argued, not a typical sex trafficker.
“I looked at all those text messages going back and forth and (in) no way, shape or form was there any time when she was giving him any money,” he said. “It was actually the other way around.”
Marchese asked for his client to get probation. Tokunaga has already suffered embarrassment and will likely never work in law enforcement again, his attorney said.
But Chief Deputy District Attorney Dena Rinetti, who asked for a 364-day jail sentence, said it was “astounding” that someone in law enforcement would take a child to an area where she could prostitute herself.
Tokunaga believed he was helping an 18-year-old woman, she said, but joked in text messages about whether he was a regular client and talked about buying the girl condoms for “her job” and facilitating her transportation to dangerous locations.
“This defendant absolutely should have known better,” Rinetti said. “He absolutely, absolutely took the trust of our community away. He is in a position of power, and he’s out at night with this child on the track at Tropicana.”
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
