Editorial: Disgraceful, arrogant actions by Kealohas, others are wake-up call on corruption

Thursday’s lightning-fast verdicts against Honolulu’s former police chief and his wife, the former city deputy prosecutor, have forced Honolulu to confront an appalling culture of corruption in institutions presumed to be standing guard over law and order.

Louis and Katherine Kealoha, found guilty of four felony counts in a federal conspiracy and corruption trial, have been excised from their positions of unquestioned authority.

Retired Maj. Gordon Shiraishi was acquitted, but two other co-defendants — former Honolulu Police Department underlings of Kealoha, Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen and Derek Wayne Hahn — also were convicted. Along with their former chief, they are free on bond while awaiting sentencing in October.

Katherine Kealoha, called a “walking crime spree” by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat, will await hers behind federal bars. She had just been convicted of obstruction of justice, Wheat told U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Michael Seabright on Friday, and, if left unguarded, might well do it again.

The stunning and ugly reality unveiled in the trial is how fearlessly this “power couple” took liberties with their power. That is what shames this city: Nobody stopped them, not even the entities that were supposed to be keeping a watchful eye.

Honolulu authorities have a duty to root out those who abuse their power. Agencies such as the Honolulu Police Commission must act now to ensure transparency and demonstrate their independence as public advocates.

Mixed in with that disgrace is some hope, with new leadership and a more clear-eyed outlook apparent both at the commission and HPD. Loretta Sheehan, who chairs the commission, said that “we should be talking about it, examining it and figuring out ways to make sure that this never happens again.”

Absolutely right. That’s the kind of resolve that needs to be pursued by those in top elected positions, including the mayor and the Honolulu City Council. So far, there’s been little sign of the rebuke this scandal deserves.

Meanwhile, there are more bombshells yet to explode:

>> City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro and Corporation Counsel Donna Leong also have received target letters in the FBI ongoing investigation. The cloud still hanging over the city’s top criminal and civil attorneys ought to worry everyone.

>> Charges of bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and obstruction of an official proceeding will be heard at a trial set to start Oct. 21. The Kealohas are accused of lying about their incomes on loan applications for home mortgages.

Katherine Kealoha is accused of forging the signature of a police officer on an HPD report, and of convincing a brother and sister to testify falsely to a federal grand jury. The siblings were beneficiaries of a trust Kealoha handled as their trustee when the brother and sister were children; she is accused of misusing the money for personal expenses.

>> Conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances and distributing and dispensing oxycodone and fentanyl are other charges faced by Katherine Kealoha and her brother, Rudolph Puana. That trial, scheduled for Jan. 14, will concern a scheme of selling prescription drugs or exchanging them for cocaine.

Puana also is accused of billing Medicaid for the drugs he distributed improperly and of possessing firearms after seeking treatment for cocaine addiction.

What makes all of this base behavior even lower is that it was driven by the Kealohas’ desire to enrich themselves at the expense of even their own family — and using the powerful resources of our public institutions of Police Department and Prosecutor’s Office for personal gain.

The so-called “Mailbox Case” started with a family dispute and civil lawsuit over Katherine Kealoha’s disposition of family funds on behalf of her uncle, Gerard Puana, and her grandmother, Florence Puana, now 99. The Kealohas conspired to win the case by discrediting the uncle, creating a video to frame him for the theft of documents from the Kealohas’ mailbox, enlisting HPD in the conspiracy.

It all had a ridiculous, almost Keystone Cops quality, but amusement gives way to disgust when details of the corruption become clear. In particular, the recorded testimony of her ailing grandmother was as damning as it was heart-rending.

It gave rise, rightly, to public indignation.

When then-Ethics Commission Executive Director Chuck Totto pursued a probe into complaints that HPD equipment was used at the Kealoha home, the Kealohas sued. The commission did not back Totto, ultimately.

The previous Police Commission gave the chief a glowing review in 2014, unquestioningly, while the mailbox episode was ongoing. It looked away while the FBI investigated.

So much for the public interest both of these panels are supposed to serve. The fecklessness of city government has been exposed through this scandalous case, and it’s a wakeup call for all to not be complicit in condoning corruption.

But as the Kealoha case does demonstrate, there is at least the federal government as backstop, with the means and will to give even high-powered criminals the punishment they deserve.