3 from HPD charged in Kealoha case plead not guilty

Three former members of the Honolulu Police Department’s elite Criminal Intelligence Unit were back in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to answer to charges filed against them in last month’s indictment of former Honolulu police Chief Louis Kealoha and his prosecutor wife, Katherine Kealoha.

Officers Derek Wayne Hahn and Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen and retired Maj. Gordon Shiraishi pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to obstruct justice and lie to federal investigators in connection with the alleged theft of the Kealohas’ mailbox. Trial for the three men, the Kealohas and officer Daniel Sellers, another former member of CIU named in the indictment, is scheduled for Dec. 19, but will probably be continued to a later date.

The Kealohas and Sellers pleaded not guilty following their arrests on Oct. 20.

The FBI arrested Hahn, Nguyen and Shiraishi before a federal grand jury returned an indictment against all six defendants. Hahn’s lawyer Birney Bervar said federal prosecutors used the criminal complaint they filed in conjunction with his client’s arrest to publicly release information and allegations that they could not have in the indictment that was filed the following day.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi continued the release conditions he had previously approved for the three men. Each of them is free on $50,000 unsecured, signature bond. One of the conditions of their release requires them to turn in any firearms. Bervar said Hahn was forced to file a theft report after he was unable to locate two of 18 firearms that are registered to him.

Following their arrests, HPD took away Sellers’, Hahn’s and Nguyen’s police powers and placed them on unpaid leave.

Nguyen’s lawyer Randall Hironaka asked Puglisi to assign him as a court-appointed lawyer because of his client’s employment status. After a closed-door hearing, during which Nguyen was required to disclose details of his personal finances, Puglisi granted Hironaka’s request.

The lawyers for Hahn and Sellers have not made similar requests.

Hironaka has been representing Nguyen since Gov. David Ige selected Nguyen’s previous lawyer, Todd Eddins, to be a state judge in February.

The Kealohas now have separate lawyers. Myles Breiner, who announced in May 2016 that he was representing the Kealohas during the investigations and grand jury proceedings that resulted in last month’s indictment, has informed the court that he is representing Katherine Kealoha. Las Vegas- based lawyer Gary Modafferi informed the court that he is representing Louis Kealoha.

Breiner and Modafferi had previously worked together as deputies for the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney. They also worked together as defense lawyers after they both went into private practice.

Modafferi surrendered his license to practice law in Hawaii following his 1998 federal conviction for distributing methamphetamine. He won reinstatement to the Hawaii bar in 2010.

Attorney Michael Green, who represents two alleged victims of some of the crimes charged in the indictment, says he believes Breiner has conflicts of interest with both Kealohas and doesn’t think Breiner can represent either one. He said he expects the federal prosecutor to ask the court to disqualify Breiner from the case.

Breiner did not respond to requests for comment.

He has been disqualified from other cases because of his representation of the Kealohas. U.S. District Judge Derek K. Watson disqualified him from two civil cases in which he represented plaintiffs suing HPD and Chief Kealoha while he was also representing Kealoha. There was a third civil case in which Breiner represented plaintiffs suing HPD and Kealoha, but he was able to negotiate a settlement before Watson’s ruling.