The top two officials of the police officers union have been placed on restrictive duty after Honolulu police opened a misdemeanor extortion case in connection with allegations outlined in a civil suit filed by an ousted union official who says he was falsely accused of double-dipping travel funds and blackmailed with the threat of a theft complaint.

“In connection with the civil lawsuit filed in May, HPD has initiated a third-degree extortion investigation involving an incident that occurred in January,” Honolulu Police Department spokesperson Sarah Yoro said Thursday in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Two officers are in the process of being placed on restricted duty.”

State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers President Robert Cavaco and Vice President Stephen Keogh are the two officers. They released a joint statement Thursday maintaining their innocence and vowing to fight the allegations against them.

“Desperate people do desperate things and these untruthful allegations that triggered this investigation are the ultimate act of desperation by an individual who was using SHOPO dues to enrich himself. This is also an attempt to stifle the new direction that SHOPO has taken since the last board was voted out,” said Cavaco and Keogh in a statement to the Star-Advertiser. “That new direction is to end the go-along-get-along representation of our members’ interests and to strongly advocate for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions so that we may recruit and retain the best and the brightest to keep our Islands safe. We will not back down, and the lies will be exposed.”

A person commits the offense of third-degree extortion if the person commits extortion of property, labor or services, according to the Hawaii Revised Statutes. It is punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.

Restriction of police authority is an order by the chief of police to an officer to cease the use of any police authority until further notice, according to HPD. The order might require the officer to turn in certain police equipment, including department- issued firearms and ammunition. To place an officer under restricted authority, the Human Resources Division writes a memo that is signed by the chief and forwarded directly to the officer’s command.

The civil lawsuit outlining the allegations that led to the criminal investigation was filed May 31 by HPD Sgt. David Leonard “Ka­wika” Hallums. Hallums, a former SHOPO vice president, alleges the other members of the union’s executive board conspired to remove him by falsely accusing him of double-dipping into travel funds from the union and HPD, and blackmailing him with the threat of criminal charges.

HPD’s Professional Standards Office received a copy of the civil complaint the day it was filed and began scheduling interviews with parties named in the case.

Keogh allegedly threatened Hallums with criminal prosecution unless he signed a “voluntary” resignation letter from his position of vice president of SHOPO, according to the civil complaint.

Prior to the initiation of the civil action against SHOPO, a sworn declaration by HPD Cpl. Don Faumuina alleges that Keogh called him Jan. 7 and told him that Hallums was considering suing SHOPO after the board removed him.

“The message that Mr. Keogh asked me to relay to Mr. Hallums was essentially a threat of criminal prose­cution by Mr. Keogh and SHOPO if Mr. Hallums took legal action against SHOPO for being removed as a vice- president,” Faumuina alleges in the declaration. “I took this to mean that Mr. Keogh and SHOPO were blackmailing Mr. Hallums with criminal prosecution if Mr.Hallums decided to challenge his removal in court or file any complaints about it against SHOPO and its newly appointed board.”

Faumuina allegedly relayed the message to Hallums and then texted Keogh.

Hallums maintains that his travel was approved by the previous SHOPO president and leadership team.

Hallums was unchallenged in SHOPO’s 2021 election and won reelection as a board vice president. He was targeted because he “dared” to support other candidates during the cycle and exposed the new board members for breaking “their fiduciary duties to SHOPO’s members” and using their positions for personal gain, according to the civil complaint filed in state court.

Faumuina ran against Robert Cavaco for president and lost in that election.

In addition to Cavaco and Keogh, board members John Asing Jr., Shawn Cavaco, Carmel Hurley, Derek Pa, Nicholas Schlapak, James Correa, Christopher Calio, Nicholas Krau, General Manager James “Kimo” Smith and counsel Randal Yoshida allegedly coordinated Hallums’ ouster at the union’s Jan. 5 meeting, according to the lawsuit.

Asing, Hurley, Keogh, Pa, Schlapak and Robert and Shawn Cavaco are current HPD officers. Smith is a retired HPD officer, Calio is an officer with the Kauai Police Department, Krau is an officer with the Maui Police Department and Correa is an officer with the Hawaii Police Department.

Honolulu attorney Paul Alston, who is representing SHOPO in the civil matter, did not return a Star-Advertiser message seeking comment.

On March 8, SHOPO sent an email to all members informing them that Hallums was removed as SHOPO vice president on March 4. The state board voted unanimously that day with one abstention in support of the conclusion that Hallums breached his fiduciary duty to the union on two occasions in 2019.

Hallums allegedly accepted per diem allowances from SHOPO and released time from HPD, in violation of SHOPO’s travel policy, according to the email.

Hallums’ attorney, Bosko Petricevic, said the email led to the lawsuit against SHOPO.

“The board determined that the policy against ‘double-­dipping’ was well known and that violating that policy was detrimental to SHOPO,” read the March 8 note to all police union members. “Although Mr. Hallums repaid the per diem payments in 2022, he showed no remorse for his actions.”

Moments after he was sworn in, the civil action alleges, the other board members went into a secret special session to discuss Hallums and upon returning presented him with a list of allegations of which he had no prior knowledge.

The board told Hallums he “improperly collected per diem payments from SHOPO in year 2019 and that Plaintiff has failed to reimburse the SHOPO for travel expenses of his companion when Plaintiff was traveling on union’s business.”

He was immediately removed, his union privileges suspended, and was threatened “with criminal prosecution unless he signed a ‘voluntary’ resignation letter from his position of vice-president of SHOPO,” according to the complaint.

The suit alleges that Hallums, a former University of Hawaii basketball player who works as an analyst of Rainbow Warrior sports for Spectrum, suffered irreparable damage to his personal reputation, embarrassment, mental anguish and damage to his aspirations of a career as a national sports media personality after his HPD service.

It also alleges violation of whistleblower protections, defamation, racial discrimination and civil rights violations among the many ways Hallums was hurt by the alleged actions of the SHOPO board.

“The allegations that were made (in the civil suit) are very serious,” Petricevic told the Star-Advertiser. “We encourage a full (criminal) investigation and we feel that is appropriate.”