Louis and Katherine Kealoha are scheduled to appear in court today to plead guilty to federal felony charges as part of separate plea agreements, ending a years-long prosecution that toppled one of Oahu’s most prominent power couples.
Louis Kealoha, the retired police chief, will plead to one count of bank fraud, his attorney said Monday.
Katherine Kealoha, a former deputy prosecutor, will plead to bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and “misprision” of a felony — failing to report a felony as a law enforcement officer, according to one of her attorneys.
All the other charges against them would be dismissed as part of the plea deals.
The Kealohas and two police officers were convicted in June of conspiracy and obstruction of justice for trying to frame Katherine’s uncle, Gerard Puana, for a crime he didn’t commit and then lying to federal investigators about their actions.
The Kealohas also were facing a January trial for bank fraud charges, but their separate plea deals — if accepted by the court — would mean the trial will not be held.
In that prosecution, Katherine Kealoha also faced charges of aggravated identity theft and obstruction of official proceedings.
Katherine Kealoha’s misprision of a felony plea would settle a separate case in which she and her brother, Dr. Rudolph Puana, were accused of running a drug distribution network involving painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug. They were scheduled to go to trial in May.
All three cases stemmed from a wide-ranging federal investigation into public corruption that is continuing.
As part of the plea deals, the Kealohas are supposed to cooperate with investigators.
The Kealohas had been scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 31 on the June convictions, but that sentencing is expected to be postponed while new pre-sentencing reports are compiled, incorporating the plea deals.
If the plea deals are accepted by U.S. District Chief Judge J. Michael Seabright, he will sentence each later based on all their offenses. They are expected to get credit for taking responsibility for their crimes.
Bank fraud is the most
serious of the charges and comes with a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to
$1 million.
Katherine Kealoha’s plea deal includes a requirement that she pay restitution of nearly $290,000 to her grandmother Frances Puana and Puana’s son, Gerard.
The Puanas had filed
a lawsuit against Kealoha
accusing her of stealing
hundreds of thousands of dollars from them. A jury, however, ruled in Kealoha’s favor, awarding her more than $650,000 in damages.
But the Puanas are seeking a new trial based on her June conviction and what prosecutors uncovered in that case.
Prosecutors said the Kealohas attempted to frame Gerard Puana for stealing the couple’s mailbox in 2013 — a crime he didn’t commit — as a way to undermine him in the family dispute.
The expected culmination of the Kealohas’ prosecution comes as their relationship appears to be on the rocks.
Louis Kealoha recently filed for divorce, saying the marriage is irretrievably
broken.
