A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges that a former city managing director conspired with two others to defraud the government by structuring a $250,000 retirement payment for then-Police Chief Louis Kealoha, according to court documents.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi denied the motion filed by attorneys representing Roy Amemiya, who served as Honolulu managing director in 2017 when the payout to Kealoha was made.

“Today’s ruling was not unexpected,” Amemiya’s attorney, Lyle S. Hosoda, told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. “The standards for granting a motion to dismiss at this stage are very high. The truth is beginning to come out. This is only the beginning. We will be back.”

Amemiya, former Honolulu Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and former Honolulu Police Commission Chair Max Sword are accused of conspiring to defraud the government by paying Kealoha $250,000 to voluntarily leave the Honolulu Police Department in January 2017. The trio turned themselves in to the FBI on Jan. 12.

On Thursday, through their attorneys, they each entered pleas of not guilty to a superseding indictment filed March 17 that contains no new allegation against Amemiya and Sword, but accuses Leong of repeatedly lying to FBI agents.

In the indictment, assistant U.S. Attorney Colin M. McDonald alleges that on Nov. 17, 2017, Leong made “materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and representations” to FBI agents investigating Kealoha’s payout. Their trial is set for June 13.

Leong’s attorney, Lynn E. Pana­gakos, denied the allegations that Leong lied to the FBI about who she talked to and how she helped pull together the payment for Kealoha.

Kelly Thornton, director of media relations for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California, which is handling the prosecution, did not immediately respond to a Star-Advertiser request for comment.

According to the motion by Ame­miya’s attorneys, the U.S. Department of Justice has presented no evidence that Ame­miya came to an agreement with anyone in relation to the handling of Kealoha’s payout, which followed standards for severance agreements at the time and was approved by city attorneys prior to its execution.

Prior to moving forward with the Kealoha payout, the city administration also considered a legal and policy memo authored by Deputy Corporation Counsel Duane Pang that found the arrangement legal and appropriate.

A 30-page report produced following a 2019 review of the settlement conducted by a San Francisco law firm, Farella Braun &Martel, contracted by the city, allegedly declared its structure legal and in line with separation payment practices at the time.

In December 2020, Kealoha was sentenced to seven years in prison, and his estranged wife, former Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Kealoha, received a 13-year sentence. They were convicted of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice in connection with a scheme to steal the proceeds from a reverse mortgage on the home belonging to Katherine Kealoha’s grandmother and framing her uncle for a crime he did not commit. In addition to the Kealohas, former HPD officers were also convicted in June 2019.