Police chief’s mailbox lands on FBI radar

The federal criminal case against the man accused of stealing Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha’s mailbox has been dismissed and the FBI might now be looking into the Honolulu Police Department’s handling of the case.

U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi signed the order Tuesday granting the federal prosecutor’s request to dismiss the case against Gerard Puana, the uncle of Kealoha’s wife, Deputy City Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.

The order dismisses the case with prejudice, which means that prosecutors cannot refile charges.

"Mr. Puana is extremely pleased that this ordeal is now over, once and for all," said Puana’s lawyer, First Assistant Federal Public Defender Alexander Silvert.

The dismissal came less than two weeks after a mistrial because of Chief Kealoha’s unsolicited testimony about Puana’s criminal history.

An HPD spokeswoman said Kealoha had no comment.

But Honolulu Police Commission Chairman Ron Taketa said Tuesday that Kealoha called him right after the mistrial to say that he had made a mistake when he made the comment on the stand. Taketa said Kealoha told him he "blurted out something that should not have been said."

"I’m convinced that it was completely inadvertent," Taketa said. "He made a mistake and there was nothing intentional about the mistrial. I am positive that there was nothing intentional about that mistrial."

Taketa said Kealoha will brief the commission for the first time on the case on Wednesday, but his comments will be made behind closed doors during an executive session.

Also during Wednesday’s commission meeting, members of the public will be allowed to testify about the chief after Taketa said room was made on the agenda because several citizens called the commission in the past couple of weeks wanting to express concerns. Taketa said the commission will listen to the testimony and ask the chief to respond to valid concerns in the executive session.

Information about Kealoha’s briefing or his responses during the executive session will likely remain confidential, however, because it is a personnel matter, Taketa said.

Silvert said he met with prosecutors following the mistrial because he and Puana decided to put their faith and trust in the integrity of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. "We presented our entire case, from top to bottom, to the prosecutors," Silvert said. He said that included evidence he and investigators from his office uncovered during their own investigation.

Silvert said he also told federal prosecutors what eight of the jurors told him after Kobayashi had discharged them.

"All eight had said to us that after they saw the videotape (of the theft), they had already decided (Puana) was not guilty," Silvert said.

In addition to dropping the case against Puana, federal prosecutors referred the case to the FBI.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliot Enoki said the Office of the U.S. Attorney has no comment.

FBI spokesman Tom Simon said the agency received a call from the Office of the U.S. Attorney on Monday asking the FBI to call Silvert. He said an agent called Silvert on Tuesday. "When we get a call from an officer of the court, we take it seriously," he said.

Silvert said, "We’re going to meet with the FBI like we did the U.S. Attorney’s Office and present the evidence that we have to them."

Silvert had said the defense’s investigation revealed misconduct at HPD and that he was able to reveal just a small bit of it to jurors before Kobayashi declared a mistrial. He said he cannot release any more information because of the pending FBI investigation.

Kealoha testified that he noticed his mailbox missing from in front of his Kahala home in the early morning of June 22 last year, before he went surfing. He said he decided not to tell his wife about it until he returned about 9:30 a.m. Silvert said Katherine Kealoha filed a complaint about the missing mailbox at 1:30 p.m.

Police officer Niall Silva testified that he was the technical officer assigned to HPD’s Criminal Investigation Unit at the time. He said his supervisor assigned him to retrieve surveillance video from the Kealohas’ home because of the mailbox theft.

Silva testified he arrived at the home at 9 a.m. and that Kealoha was not there but that another CIU officer was waiting for him. He said he removed the recorder’s hard drive and took it back to HPD headquarters to download video of the theft onto compact discs. On cross-examination Silva admitted he altered an official HPD document indicating how many copies he made after he had already submitted the document.

Silvert said when he delivered a court-ordered subpoena for the hard drive, HPD told him there wasn’t one.

In his opening statement on Dec. 4, Silvert told jurors that the man shown in the video stealing the Kealohas’ mailbox was not Puana. He said the Kealohas told federal authorities it was Puana to discredit him in a related civil case in state court.

Puana and his 95-year-old mother, Florence Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s grandmother, are suing Kealoha over money from a reverse mortgage she arranged on her grandmother’s Maunalani Heights home and other moneys Gerard Puana claims he gave his niece to put into an investment hui and for safekeeping.

Police Commission Chairman Taketa said he believes the commission’s hands are tied in making public statements about the mistrial because a federal investigation is underway and because the department has rules about releasing personal information about police employees, including the chief.

And if the chief were found guilty of any wrongdoing, any discipline would likely be confidential because the case is considered a personnel matter.

Taketa added, however, that the commission holds the chief to a higher standard than other city employees and that he has been forthcoming with the commission, alerting it to his family dispute.

"He was honestly sincere about apologizing for what he said," Taketa said. "He just admitted that it was error and it was spur of the moment and he regretted it."

He continued: "The mistrial was the furthest thing from his mind as to what he wanted coming out of that trial. There’s actually in my opinion no reason to believe that he would have benefited from a mistrial."

Meanwhile, the commission has started the process for Kealoha’s annual review and one of five categories for which the chief is graded — community relations — could be affected by events surrounding the family dispute. Kealoha received a rating of 4.1 out of 5 in his last review in January.

Taketa said the commission has a range of disciplinary measures it can use with the chief, as any manager has over an employee.

Kealoha’s review is expected to come out in January.