City to pay for detective’s attorney in Kealoha civil case

The City Council has approved paying a Honolulu law firm up to $50,000 to represent a Honolulu Police Department detective in a civil lawsuit brought by a man who said he was unlawfully arrested and maliciously prosecuted by former Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine, a Honolulu deputy prosecutor.

The lawsuit brought by Gerard Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, alleges that Dru Akagi, a 21-year HPD veteran, was among several officers who were part of a conspiracy to frame Puana for the alleged theft of the Kealohas’ mailbox outside their Kahala home in June 2013.

The Council voted 8-0 Wednesday to pay Fukunaga Matayoshi Ching & Kon-Herrera to represent Akagi, who is one of four current or former officers named in the lawsuit. Puana alleges the officers “mishandled evidence, falsified reports, otherwise failed to perform investigative and normal police duties in a capable and professional manner in order to (ensure) that (Puana) would be prosecuted for the alleged theft of the Kealohas’ mailbox.”

By voting for Resolution 17-161, the Council in essence is saying what Akagi is accused of doing occurred while acting within his performance of duties as an HPD officer. The Honolulu Police Commission forwarded Akagi’s request to the Council in April at the recommendation of the Department of Corporation, the city’s chief civil litigation arm, according to the minutes from the meeting.

The commission has received similar requests for legal representation in the Puana civil case from Louis Kealoha and current HPD Officers Daniel Sellers and Ming-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen, but held off allowing those to go the Council. The commission voted to ask those three men to provide more information regarding their requests to the commission in quasi-judicial contested case proceedings, which have yet to be scheduled.

Puana’s case centers on the charge that the Kealohas, along with a number of HPD officers, conspired against him to gain an advantage over him in an ongoing legal dispute involving Katherine Kealoha’s handling of money belonging to Florence Puana, his mother and her grandmother. The theft case against Puana was dismissed in December 2014, shortly after Louis Kealoha, while on the witness stand, made an inadmissible statement about Puana’s criminal history.

The federal public defender representing Puana in that case turned over his information to federal prosecutors, who have been meeting with a grand jury for more than a year regarding an investigation into the theft of the mailbox and other matters.

In December former HPD Officer Niall Silva pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring with others to alter evidence and falsify records, obstructing a federal prosecution and making false statements in the Puana case. Less than a week later, Louis Kealoha voluntarily placed himself on administrative leave after receiving a target letter from the FBI. He retired Feb. 28.

The Council approval Wednesday allows the Fukunaga firm to represent Akagi only in the civil case brought by Puana. The trial has been pushed back until May to allow the related criminal case to move forward first.