Gerard Puana was convinced that a team of Honolulu police officers was following him — to a party in Kailua, to Manoa Marketplace, and constantly driving around his house.
Then on June 29, 2013 — a week after Puana’s niece, former deputy prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, reported her mailbox stolen — two men got out of one of the vehicles that had been tailing Puana.
The men then “took away” Puana’s neighbor, who sometimes parked a white Acura on the street, Puana testified Wednesday on the 10th day of the federal corruption trial of Kealoha, her husband, former Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha; and three current and former officers.
The night of June 29, 2013, Puana’s brother-in-law — a former investigator with the Hawaii County Prosecutor’s Office — joined Puana at the home he shared with his mother on Nioi Place near Wilhelmina Rise.
“I was so paranoid wondering what this was all about,” Puana testified. “There were cops parked all over my street. … I said, ‘They just took away my neighbor.’”
Puana and his brother-in-law then drove Puana’s 2005 silver Pontiac Grand Prix to a nearby 7-Eleven for coffee and “just a whole caravan of them followed us down there,” Puana said.
On the drive back to his house, “I told my brother-in-law, ‘Watch this: I’m going to lose them.’”
Puana said he turned off his lights and drove down a side street.
“They were just flying by looking for me,” Puana said.
When he turned the Pontiac’s lights back on, “they surrounded us with guns drawn — ‘Put your hands where we can see them’ — the whole nine yards,” Puana said.
The officers told Puana and his brother-in-law, “‘There’s a lot of burglaries in this area. We’re suspicious of any vehicle.’ They were frustrated because I lost them,” Puana said.
Puana was later arrested and charged with destroying the Kealohas’ mailbox, a federal crime. Video cameras showed a white car pull up to the home and a man remove the mailbox and put it into the car.
Puana’s 2014 federal trial then ended in mistrial after inappropriate testimony from Louis Kealoha, who disclosed that Puana had been convicted in 2011 of unlawfully entering a neighbor’s home. The mailbox charges against Puana were dismissed.
Puana testified Wednesday that his 2011 arrest — for unauthorized entry into a dwelling — represented the further deterioration of his relationship with Katherine Kealoha, who was then a deputy prosecutor.
In happier times, Puana testified that he had a nickname for his niece, “Katsters,” and she called him, “Uncle Gerrsters.”
Following his arrest for the unlawful entry charge, the bad feelings between uncle and niece that had been brewing over a disputed reverse mortgage on the Nioi Place home grew even worse.
Puana’s arrest began with an ongoing dispute between Puana and a neighbor who kept parking his car in front of stairs that Puana’s mother — then 91 — had to use whenever she wanted to go somewhere.
When he went to confront the neighbor, Puana said the landlords had converted an outdoor patio into a rental living space where the neighbor lived. The tenant called Honolulu police, who arrested Puana.
(Puana eventually pleaded no contest to the charge, a Class C felony, and was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to attend mental health and anger management sessions and write a letter of apology to the victim).
After he was arrested, Puana said his first call was to Kealoha, but Puana implied Wednesday that she did not respond.
Puana testified that he did not know how many days he spent in Oahu Community Correctional Center. He was only allowed to make phone calls on Thursday nights, but the calls only could go to landlines — when so many people he knew only had cellphones.
Then one night, Puana said he was told that he had to appear at Circuit Court the following morning.
Instead of going into a holding cell or courtroom, Puana said sheriff’s deputy Thomas Cayetano — who testified previously that he had known Katherine Kealoha for decades — took Puana into a conference room.
The only person in the room was Katherine Kealoha, who sat at the head of a table.
Kealoha delivered a flurry of bad news: Puana’s home had been burglarized; his mother, Florence Puana,
had fallen and broken her ribs; one of their relatives died; and no one could find Puana’s son.
“She basically says, ‘I’ll come and see you tomorrow,’ kissed my cheek and left the room,” Puana said.
Deputy Cayetano then escorted Puana out of the room and got him on his way back to OCCC, Puana said.
At some point, Puana
was again ordered to report to Circuit Court.
Cayetano greeted Puana again and took him to a court holding cell where
Kealoha again was waiting, by herself, Puana said.
Kealoha held up her Blackberry and said she
had taken hair samples from a hairbrush in his bathroom at Nioi Place and analyzed it. Kealoha said the Blackberry showed a positive test for methamphetamine.
Puana testified that was impossible.
He admitted using crystal meth until his father died in 2002.
“He asked me to get off the junk and take care of my mother … and I’ve kept that promise ever since,” Puana said.
Puana admitted on the witness stand to using marijuana, but said Kealoha never mentioned testing positive for marijuana.
In the Circuit Court holding cell, Kealoha gave Puana an ultimatum:
“She said I had to agree to go to Sand Island Treatment Center to help my case, and it was the only way she would help me,” Puana said. “She told me to sign these papers” and would get Puana admitted to Sand
Island that day.
Kealoha said his time at Sand Island would last “a month to six weeks long,
but it’ll definitely help your case,” Puana said.
Cayetano then handcuffed Puana and drove him directly to the Sand Island
center, Puana said.
There, Puana was told “it wasn’t a month or six-week program, it was a 2-1/2-year program. I was very angry.”
Puana told the staff,
“take me back to OCCC. I’m not going to be here for
2-1/2 years. … Tommy Cayetano came and shackled me up and put me in the back of his sheriff’s car and we went back to OCCC.”
After 71 days in OCCC — in a notorious annex nicknamed “The Thunderdome” — Puana finally got out after another inmate was released and arranged for Puana to call the inmate’s house phone on a Thursday night to set up a three-way conversation with one of Puana’s sisters. The sister bailed out Puana the following Friday morning.
Back home, Puana’s sisters told him not to go downstairs into his room
because it was a crime scene. Puana ignored them because he wanted to take
a shower and sleep in his own bed.
“Every day I would notice things missing” — credit cards from his wallet; the memory card from his camera; HPD ball caps and T-shirts; two switchblade knives and a cap gun, Puana said.
In 2012, during a family meeting including Katherine Kealoha, one of Puana’s sisters told Kealoha to give Puana back his keys “and other items of mine,” Puana said.
On Halloween, a box
arrived. It contained documents about Puana’s father’s trust, and documents related to Puana’s purchase of a condo in Salt Lake, which he said Kealoha helped him facilitate.
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday displayed a photo of the box that had Katherine Kealoha’s name on top, as the sender.
Prosecutors then showed another photo of the other contents: Puana’s missing knives, cap gun and camera memory card.
Testimony is scheduled to resume this morning.
