The federal prosecutor has dropped the criminal case over the alleged theft of Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha’s mailbox and the FBI has been asked to investigate HPD’s handling of the case, the defendant’s lawyer said Tuesday.

The attorney, First Assistant Federal Defender Alexander Silvert, said Tuesday that the U.S. Attorney in Honolulu filed for an order from the court to dismiss the case with no opportunity to bring it back.

U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi signed the order Tuesday granting the request, dismissing the case against Gerard Puana, the uncle of Kealoha’s wife, deputy city prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.

Silvert also said the case has been turned over to the FBI to look into how Honolulu police investigated the case before handing it over to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Silvert previously said the case would reveal improper police procedures, including falsified reports and off-the-books surveillance.

FBI spokesman Tom Simon confirmed on Tuesday that the U.S. Attorney Office had asked the agency to contact Silvert about HPD’s handling of the case. Simon would not comment further.

The move to dismiss comes less than two weeks after Kealoha’s testimony led to a mistrial.

On Dec. 4, the chief had been called as a prosecution witness and made an unsolicited statement that Puana was previously charged and convicted of breaking into a neighbor’s home. 

Silvert objected, saying Kealoha should have known better than to bring up information that could unfairly damage his client’s credibility. U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi agreed that the testimony was inappropriate and declared a mistrial.

Following the mistrial, Silvert said he met with federal prosecutors and presented the evidence they uncovered in the case. Silvert allege that the Kealohas framed 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 the chief’s wife over money from a reverse mortgage she arranged on her grandmother’s Maunalani Heights home and other money Gerald Puana claims he gave his niece to put into an investment hui and for safekeeping.

The civil case was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday, but the judge postponed the trial in part because Katherine Kealoha is asking another judge to appoint a conservator for her grandmother to take over the case.

Silvert has said he believes the police chief intentionally caused a mistrial to prevent a possible not guilty verdict in the criminal case from affecting his wife’s civil case.

In the criminal case, the government alleged Puana tore the mailbox from its support post in June 2013, stuck it into a car and drove away. The mailbox was in front of Louis and Katherine Kealoha’s former home in Kahala.

Prosecutors have said Puana stole the mailbox in an attempt to access account records that were sent to the residence. The records are connected to the lawsuit.

Katherine Kealoha is on indefinite personal leave from her job as head of the career criminal unit of the Honolulu prosecutor’s office.