The FBI and U.S. Customs agents came to the Kaneohe (Hawaii) Public Library September 5 to arrest library assistant Lando Millare, 30, for allegedly luring a 14-year-old Medford, Oregon, e-pal to Hawaii to have sex with her. Authorities also seized Millare’s home computer, but did not confiscate any library workstations.
The highly public arrest blindsided Millare’s colleagues—who described him to a reporter from NBC affiliate KITV as a pleasant, conscientious worker—as well as State Librarian Virginia Lowell, who said that law-enforcement officials never told her about the two-month-long investigation. KPL patron Candace Naito said she would now be leery of allowing her children to “go to the library themselves, especially since this is a public facility.”
Millare allegedly sent the girl an airline ticket after posing online for almost a year as a 17-year-old boy, according to the September 6 Honolulu Advertiser. The two gained her parents’ approval by inventing a Hawaiian girlfriend for her to visit; the parents called Honolulu police June 19 when their daughter didn’t phone to confirm her arrival. Authorities found her in Millare’s home, apparently unharmed, and sent her back to her parents.
Posted September 10, 2001.