Katherine Kealoha, wife of Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, said Thursday that it "didn’t feel good" when she heard her grandmother testify that her grandmother "loved" her, in the past tense.
"It’s really sad," Kealoha said.
The grandmother, 95-year-old Florence Puana, and Kealoha’s uncle, Gerard Puana, are suing Kealoha in state court over money they say their granddaughter and niece owe them.
The three-week trial is winding down with Kealoha, a deputy city prosecutor, testifying as a defense witness.
Kealoha said she doesn’t blame her grandmother for the two of them having to face off against each other in court.
"I think she’s just as much of a victim here as I am," she said.
The grandmother testified Jan. 30 that she trusted Kealoha and never dreamed that her granddaughter would lie to her.
Before the trial started last month, Kealoha asked a judge in another state court to appoint a conservator to take her grandmother’s place in the lawsuit. Kealoha claims that her grandmother is unable to manage her property and business affairs effectively and is being manipulated by Gerard, her grandmother’s caregiver and youngest son. The judge postponed a hearing on the request to next month.
Kealoha said she helped her grandmother get a reverse mortgage on her grandmother’s Maunalani Heights home to get money to buy a condominium for Gerard.
"She wanted to get a loan to help Gerard, and that’s exactly what happened," she said.
Kealoha said she did not tell her grandmother’s other eight children, including her father, about the reverse mortgage and condominium purchase because she felt it was up to her grandmother and uncle to do so.
After the condominium purchase there was about $148,000 left over from the reverse mortgage.
Kealoha said she spent some of the money on expenditures her grandmother authorized, including furniture for the condominium, some maintenence frees, and gas cards for Gerard as well as concert tickets for Gerard, his son and their friends.
The rest of the money was used for her own expenses including an inauguration breakfast for her husband and car lease payments, because Kealoha said it was money owed to her. She said she used her own money for the down payment on the condominium, monthly rent on it as part of an early occupancy agreement when the reverse mortgage took longer than expected, and on maintenence fees.
Kealoha said she never agreed to pay off the reverse mortgage.
She said her uncle had agreed to pay $1,640 per month toward repayment of the reverse mortgage plus $1,337 per month for the maintenance fees and money he owed her. Her uncle did not have a job, but she said she believed his disability check was enough to cover the monthly maintenance fees and reverse mortgage.
Gerard Puana testified earlier that his monthly disability check is $2,036.
Kealoha said her uncle never paid any money toward the reverse mortgage and was late in paying the maintenance fees. Still she felt that everything was OK, even after one of her aunts learned about the reverse mortgage and condominium purchase. That was until she got a letter that her grandmother had mailed to Louis Kealoha at the Honolulu Police Department.
In the letter, the grandmother tells Katherine Kealoha that she is no longer her lawyer or representative on any matter. The grandmother also accuses Kealoha of lying to her about the reverse mortgage, asks for the title to the condominium and tells her granddaughter that she owes her $300,000.
Kealoha said her reaction to the letter was, "I was beyond angry, I was livid," because neither her grandmother nor uncle tried to contact her with questions about the reverse mortgage and condominium purchase or to express any displeasure.
The uncle and grandmother earlier testified that Kealoha never responded to their attempts to contact her, and that’s why the grandmother said she sent the letter to Kealoha’s husband.
Kealoha said her uncle never gave her $70,000 in cash to invest and for safekeeping as he claims.
She said the claims of her grandmother and uncle have left her feeling "betrayed and stupid," and she believes they are an attempt to get her to pay the reverse mortgage.
