'Dorm mother' accused of sexually assaulting exchange student pleads not guilty

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A Manoa woman accused of sexually assaulting one of her Japanese exchange students pleaded not guilty in a courtroom on Thursday.

Rika Shimizu, 36, was charged with five counts of second-degree sex assault and four counts of fourth-degree sex assault for incidents that started in October 2017 until Feb. 2.

Court documents say Shimizu, who recruited exchange students from Japan, raped the 16-year-old boy as many as 10 times while he was bedridden with an injury.

Police say she also threatened the victim if he went to authorities, saying she'd accuse him of rape if he reported her.

She also allegedly threatened to throw him out of the exchange program and expel him from school, and insinuated that his family would lose all the money they had paid for him to participate in the program.

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