Former Ethics Commission leader rips members for lack of support

The former director of the Honolulu Ethics Commission told the panel’s members Wednesday that they violated the public’s trust by pulling him and his staff off from their investigations of ex-Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, then-Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.

“The Ethics Commission did not carry out its duty to the public to properly investigate the Kealohas,” Chuck Totto said. “You’ve heard some reasons as to why that was; I don’t buy them.”

Commission Chairwoman Victoria Marks, who was a member of the commission when Totto resigned, said the decision to pull Totto from any investigations involving the Kealohas was done out of an abundance of caution because they had filed both lawsuits and complaints against him and the commission.

“Basically, we were doing what we thought was best, and everything we could do, so as to not in any way, shape or form have that process tainted in any way,” Marks said.

The Kealohas were convicted last month of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a case that involved the alleged theft of the couple’s mailbox and the use of Honolulu police personnel to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle.

Totto resigned as the commission’s executive director in June 2016 after 16 years on the job. He said while no one directly forced him to resign, he was prevented from investigating what became the biggest corruption case in Oahu history, a situation that made his situation “untenable.”

But Totto said he and investigator Letha DeCaires were prevented from investigating the Kealohas because of the complaints the couple filed against them“without any basis of evidence.” Among the allegations in the Kealohas’ complaints were that Totto and DeCaires were abusive, lied and leaked information to the news media, none of which were proven.

The commission first removed him from a financial disclosure case against the Kealohas “and then … in December 2015 removed me from any dealings with any issue regarding the Kealohas,” Totto said. “In other words, the commission decided that instead of taking any look at what the complaints were like, and whether they were valid, even on their faces, the commission removed me.”

At the time, he said, there were 17 open cases against one or both of the Kealohas, he said.

Totto said he disagreed with Marks’ conclusion that the Kealoha cases had nothing to do with his resignation. “When you (have) the largest corruption case in the history of the state staring at you and your commission gives you no support, and in fact delays and delays things despite your request to get support, that made it untenable.”

Totto also questioned the commission’s decision to not renew the contract of DeCaires, an HPD captain. Commissioners said that decision was based on instructions from Corporation Counsel Donna Leong that city rules prohibit hiring people on personal services contracts for more than a year. Totto, who had a history of clashes with Leong, said Wednesday that policy is frequently violated by all city agencies, and that DeCaires’ situation was singled out.

Leong, in January, placed herself on leave after she received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice tied to the Kealoha investigation.

The commission put the discussion of the Kealohas and the commission’s role in the controversy on Wednesday’s monthly meeting agenda to “set some things straight,” Marks told the public.

Marks said she and other commissioners wanted to make three main points: Two cases that seek to prosecute the Kealohas for ethics violations are ongoing; the commission is also continuing its investigation into Ethics Commission staff; and Totto resigned voluntarily from the commission.

Marks said the commission typically has no knowledge of pending investigations being undertaken by commission staff.

From July to November in 2015, the Kealohas filed a series of complaints against the commission, its staff and/or the city, she said.

“At that point, it becomes aware that our staff has an apparent conflict of interest so we start dealing with that issue,” Marks said. As a result, separate law firms were hired to deal with the commission’s prosecution against the Kealohas in the two cases, the Kealohas’ complaints against commission staff and a third issue involving a workplace complaint against Totto, she said.

Commission Vice Chairman Michael Lilly, speaking via a teleconferencing call from Maui, praised Totto and ripped the Kealohas.

Lilly said a police chief and the head of the prosecutor’s Career Criminal Division “weaponized their law enforcement powers” to wrongfully land her uncle, Gerard Puana, in jail.

Totto should be credited for investigating the Kealohas’ abuses and misuse of police assets, Lilly said.

“The Kealohas successfully created a conflict of interest,” Lilly said. “It required us to have Chuck (Totto) step down temporarily so that we could resolve whether there was a conflict.”

The commission needs to take steps to prevent targets of ethics complaints from derailing investigations against them as the Kealohas did, Lilly said.

Peter Adler, a commissioner who was appointed after Totto left, agreed with Lilly’s comment and said he hoped to hear Totto’s input.

Lilly said far from forcing Totto to resign, he urged him to stay on. He called it “ridiculous” that people would suggest that Mayor Kirk Caldwell appointed commissioners that would fire Totto.

After the meeting, Marks said she was not instructed by the mayor or anyone else on Totto’s employment.

Lincoln Ashida, the Hilo attorney contracted to follow through with Totto’s prosecutions, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Wednesday night that the cases are ongoing. They were paused pending completion of the federal cases against the Kealohas, he said.

Eric Seitz, the attorney for Gerard Puana and his mother Florence in a racketeering civil lawsuit against the city, said Honolulu officials need to investigate “what went wrong and how,” find ways to prevent a recurrence and adequately compensate his clients in several cases, as well as other victims of abuse by city officials and employees.

Seitz said he sent a letter calling for the three actions to acting Corporation Counsel Paul Aoki earlier this week, giving him until 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to respond.

Seitz said he did not expect Aoki to answer the letter “because I have no confidence in him or anybody who works for this mayor or for this city.”

He said he intended to make the letter public, “and then the citizens of the City and County will have to decide how they are going to handle the drain on resources in millions and millions of dollars that’s going to occur if we end up having to pursue this matter through litigation.”

A city spokesman said Aoki had no comment on Seitz’s letter.