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Katherine Kealoha, a former Honolulu deputy prosecutor and the wife of a former Honolulu police chief, dealt illegal prescription drugs obtained from her brother, a Big Island doctor, and used her position to protect him from arrest, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
These are just the latest charges against Kealoha, who was already accused of framing her uncle for stealing her mailbox and of lying on loan applications.
A federal grand jury charged Kealoha and her brother, Dr. Rudolph Puana, who is an anesthesiologist and pain doctor, of conspiring with others to distribute prescription pain medication oxycodone and fentanyl and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, also known as Xanax.
Kealoha and Puana, who was arrested Tuesday, are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court today.
The indictment accuses Kealoha of covering up her brother’s involvement in the drug dealing conspiracy after a detective with the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit discovered the crime and told Kealoha about it. The indictment said Kealoha protected Puana so he could continue prescribing and distributing drugs.
The conspiracy involved Puana distributing or writing prescriptions for the drugs, outside the scope of professional practice, for Kealoha and four co-conspirators, according to the indictment. Kealoha and three of the co-conspirators were Puana’s patients. Kealoha used the drugs for herself and distributed some to a person in New York, where her daughter is attending college, and a person in Hawaii, the indictment said. Puana is accused of directing three other patients to sell or trade the prescription drugs for cocaine to give to him.
The indictment says Puana is a cocaine addict. One charge accuses him of possessing firearms unlawfully. The indictment lists two semi-automatic handguns, a revolver, three rifles and a shotgun in his possession.
The CIU detective who tipped off Kealoha is not named in the indictment. His description, however, matches that of Daniel Sellers, who was charged with lying in the mailbox case but who pleaded guilty in a deal with the government last month to a misdemeanor charge of passing on confidential information to Kealoha. His sentencing is scheduled for April. Sellers is no longer assigned to CIU and is on leave from HPD.
The indictment says a CIU detective notified Kealoha that her brother was purchasing and using cocaine provided to him by the nonpatient co-conspirator and someone described as “Individual C.” The conspiracy Sellers discovered resulted in state drug distribution charges against former HPD officer Alan Ahn and Tiffany Masunaga.
Ahn pleaded no contest in 2017 to eight drug promotion charges and one of possessing drug paraphernalia. He was sent to jail for two months as part of a four-year probation sentence.
Masunaga was facing more serious charges than Ahn for distributing drugs close to a school or park, but pleaded no contest in 2016 to lesser charges in a deal offered to her by Kealoha, who was prosecuting the case. At the time of the deal, Masunaga and Kealoha were being represented by the same lawyer.
Masunaga has never been scheduled for sentencing. Her new lawyer had unsuccessfully moved to disqualify the Honolulu Department of Prosecuting Attorney from the case. He said in light of recent developments, he plans to renew his request.
According to the indictment, Kealoha got herself assigned to the Ahn-Masunaga case, drafted and approved an affidavit in support of a search warrant that concealed Puana’s involvement, prevented police detectives from questioning Ahn and Masunaga about the source of the drugs and concealed it from other deputy prosecutors. The indictment says Kealoha cultivated a close personal relationship with Masunaga, even communicating with her using an encrypted messaging application, in an effort to prevent Masunaga from revealing Puana’s role in the drug distribution.
Kealoha; her husband, former HPD Chief Louis Kealoha; and three other former members of HPD’s CIU are scheduled to stand trial in federal court next month in the mailbox case. The Kealohas are then scheduled to stand trial in June for bank fraud.
Katherine Kealoha’s court-appointed lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
The growing corruption scandal involving former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, former city Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, began with the reported theft of their mailbox in 2013. It continues to spread, with more indictments Tuesday against Katherine Kealoha and with the state Attorney General calling for city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro to step down.
>> June 22, 2013: City Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, wife of Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, tells police the mailbox at their Kahala home was stolen.
>> June: Kealoha reports that her uncle Gerard Puana was captured on home surveillance video stealing the mailbox.
>> July 1: Federal prosecutors charge Puana with destroying a mailbox, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine.
>> Dec. 4, 2014: On the first day of Puana’s trial, Louis Kealoha causes a mistrial by telling the jury about Puana’s 2011 conviction for unlawfully entering a neighbor’s home. Alexander Silvert, Puana’s defense attorney, accuses Kealoha of purposely causing the mistrial to avert a not-guilty verdict that would have undercut Katherine Kealoha’s standing in a civil case against Puana.
>> Dec. 17: Silvert tells the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he has turned over information about the mailbox theft case to the FBI for investigation. This eventually triggers a federal grand jury query about alleged police misconduct, which leads to an investigation centering on the Kealohas and others.
>> Dec. 16, 2016: Retired HPD officer Niall Silva pleads guilty to conspiring with other officers and Katherine Kealoha to frame Puana for the theft of the mailbox.
>> Dec. 20: Louis Kealoha places himself on voluntary paid leave after the FBI sends him a “target letter” informing him that he is the focus of a criminal investigation.
>> Jan. 6, 2017: Louis Kealoha agrees to retire, ending a 33-year career.
>> Jan. 14: The FBI conducts a raid on Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro’s office.
>> Jan. 18: Honolulu Police Commission announces Kealoha will be paid $250,000 in severance, out of HPD funds, in exchange for retiring Feb. 28.
>> Oct. 15: Two current and former HPD officers are arrested and charged with crimes related to HPD’s investigation of the mailbox theft and an alleged cover-up; a third officer is arrested Oct. 18, 2017.
>> Oct. 20: FBI agents arrest the Kealohas and a fourth HPD officer.
>> Sept. 17, 2018: Katherine Kealoha resigns as deputy prosecutor.
>> December: Reports surface that Kaneshiro received a letter that he is a target in the federal investigation. One of his deputies, Chasid Sapolu, receives a letter saying investigators suspect he may have committed misconduct.
>> Dec. 13: Sapolu takes a leave of absence from his job as first deputy prosecuting attorney.
>> Dec. 19: Businessman Tracy Yoshimura files an impeachment petition against Kaneshiro in state Circuit Court.
>> Jan. 14, 2019: The city announces that its top civil attorney, Honolulu Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, is on paid leave after receiving a target letter. Mayor Kirk Caldwell says it involves Leong’s role in the agreement allowing the chief to retire with benefits, including his $250,000 severance pay.
>> Feb. 12: State Attorney General Clare Connors asks Hawaii Supreme Court to suspend Kaneshiro.
>> Feb. 12: New indictment against Katherine Kealoha accuses her of conspiring with her physician brother Rudolph Puana and others to distribute prescription pain and anti-anxiety drugs. It also accuses Kealoha of covering up the conspiracy when a detective with the HPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit discovered the drug dealing and told her about it.
>> Feb. 13: Katherine Kealoha and Rudolph Puana are scheduled to appear in court.
>> Feb. 14: A status conference on the impeachment petition is scheduled before Circuit Judge Jeffrey P. Crabtree.
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