Editorial: Sordid tales in court

It’s been an unctuously riveting two weeks at the federal courthouse, due to former city deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha and her husband, former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha. They are on trial for conspiracy and corruption, along with one retired and two current police officers.

The parade of witnesses has included her 99-year-old grandmother and uncle, both who claim being bilked by her; testimony about a fictitious notary public named Alison Lee Wong, who prosecutors say was actually Katherine Kealoha carrying out money schemes; expert testimony of forged documents; police officers questioning odd orders, about the Kealohas’ stolen mailbox, from the higher-ranking officers now on trial; retaliation for city ethics investigations.

The unsettling case also has revealed one tangent that’s now triggered a separate probe: The state Department of Public Safety is investigating Thomas Cayetano, a deputy sheriff, who testified that as favors to Katherine Kealoha, he arranged to transport her uncle, Gerard Puana — after his 2011 arrest for unauthorized entry into a neighbor’s home — from jail to a courthouse basement for unauthorized meetings, then tried to send Puana into a drug treatment facility. Those alleged secret machinations kept Puana in jail for over 70 days, during which time his house was ransacked and items taken.

It’s dismaying that such sordid events are embroiling so many levels, and branches, of Oahu law enforcement. The trial is scheduled for a break next week. When it resumes, anticipation will be high to see how the defense counters these last two weeks of the prosecution’s mounting evidence.