Joint petition seeks open hearings on attorney fees

Two local news organizations are taking the Honolulu Police Commission to court in an effort to make public any proceedings involving requests by officers for attorney’s fees.

Oahu Publications Inc., parent company of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and Honolulu Civil Beat filed a joint petition Monday with the Hawaii Supreme Court.

At issue are the commission’s quasi-judicial proceedings involving two Honolulu Police Department officers who want the city to pay their legal fees in a high-profile lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that officers Ming-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen and Daniel Sellers were among those involved in a conspiracy to wrongly arrest and prosecute a man related to Katherine Kealoha, the wife of retired HPD Chief Louis Kealoha.

The commission determined at its July 19 meeting that while the two men had due-process rights to open hearings on their requests, they could waive their rights and have the proceedings closed. Both initially asked that hearings be held behind closed doors, despite objections raised by the media companies.

Commissioners Steven Levinson and Loretta Sheehan also raised objections to closing the hearings, stating that despite the waiver, the panel needed to independently weigh the public’s constitutional right to observe the proceedings.

In their petition the two news companies argue that the public has a constitutional right to access contested-case proceedings held by the commission.

“If a proceeding will be closed to the public, the commission may do so only after finding that closure is necessary to prevent harm to a compelling interest and that harm cannot be prevented by any alternative other than closure of the hearing,” the petition states. “The commission’s request to eject the public simply because a party waived any due process right to an open hearing falls far short of the required constitutional procedures.”

The petition cites a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined quasi-­judicial administrative proceedings are “subject to a qualified right of public access.”

During the July 19 proceedings for Nguyen and Sellers, Levinson and Sheehan said they would not participate in the adjudications if they were closed to the public.

Randall Hironaka, Ngu­yen’s attorney, then asked for time to discuss the situation with his client, who was not present, by phone. When he returned a few minutes later, he asked that the meeting be open.

In the open meeting the commission heeded the advice of city attorneys and voted 4-2 to reject Nguyen’s request for attorney’s fees. Levinson and Sheehan voted to pay for his representation.

Richard Sing, Sellers’ attorney, was scheduled to make his client’s case after Hironaka. Sing asked for more time to prepare his argument for why the meeting should be closed. The hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Nguyen and Sellers are named in a lawsuit brought by Gerard Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, who alleges that his niece and the former HPD chief conspired with other officers to frame Puana in the theft of the Kealohas’ mailbox from the front of their Kahala home. Puana’s lawsuit claims he was wrongly arrested, imprisoned and prosecuted to help the Kealohas in an ongoing family legal dispute between them.

While the Corporation Counsel’s office recommended against providing Nguyen and Sellers legal representation, it recommended that HPD Detective Dru Akagi, another defendant in the civil case, be granted up to $50,000 for city-paid legal fees. The Police Commission voted to support the Corporation Counsel’s recommendation to pay for Akagi’s attorney, and the City Council, the ultimate decision-maker on providing legal counsel, approved the payment earlier this year.

Former Chief Kealoha has also sought legal fees in the case from the commission. Corporation Counsel has recommended his request be rejected, but the commission has yet to hold any hearings on the case. Kea­loha wants Sheehan removed from voting on the case because of critical comments she’s made about him.