A federal judge sentenced a Hawaii island pain doctor to 7-1/2 years in prison Monday after he was found guilty in April of pushing more than 7,000 oxycodone pills into the Hawaii island and Oahu communities from about 2013 through 2017.

Dr. Rudolph B. Puana, 50, of Waimea was found guilty in federal court April 20 of 38 counts of distributing and dispensing oxycodone, one count of distributing or dispensing fentanyl “outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” and conspiracy to distribute or dispense the drugs.

The U.S. Department of Justice had asked that Puana be sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Puana, brother of jailed former Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kea­loha, also must pay a $50,000 fine within 60 days and will be on three years of federal probation following his release. He also must pay a $3,900 special assessment. Puana pleaded guilty March 29 to a single count of being a drug addict in possession of a firearm.

Katherine Kealoha, in 2019, pleaded guilty to using her position to shield her brother, who she claimed prescribed her pills that she would trade for cocaine.

Puana, an anesthesiologist and pain doctor, distributed more than 7,810 oxycodone pills worth more than $117,000 to friends so they could sell them to pay for their children’s tuition at Hawaii Preparatory Academy and to buy cocaine to use together, according to evidence presented by the federal prosecutors during his trial.

Chief U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright heard passionate pleas for leniency from Puana’s psychiatrist, a Hawaii island doctor who Puana worked with prior to his trial and a friend and neighbor Puana met in Waimea in 2019.

All who spoke met Puana after he decided to live sober in 2018 and make major life changes.

Puana has tested negative more than 100 times for drugs and attended more than 700 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since 2018. He has given his time and effort to help others stay sober and assist medical professionals and anyone else needing his advice as a doctor, his supporters told Seabright’s court.

“I got a four-year chip for you here, buddy,” said Winston “Scott” Byron, a friend from Waimea who told the court Monday he bonded with Puana over his commitment to live sober. “He lives humbled by the fact that his addiction has caused a lot of damage. He sees where help is needed and provides it. Please consider what use this man could be to the community.”

Byron, a business executive and consultant, has been sober for 25 years.

“The fact that you were a physician and addicted and engaged in this scheme … that is the great abuse of physician trust,” said Seabright, addressing Puana. “You care deeply about others. … I get it, that that’s you. But that’s the contradiction, right? That this good Dr. Puana was willing to put this poison out on the street.”

Seabright acknowledged this was a “difficult case” to rule on and said he did not think Puana would have done any of it if he had been sober. If he stays clean, Puana is “not an ongoing danger to the community,” said Seabright.

On advice of his attorney, F. Clinton Broden, Puana, dressed in a white prison jumpsuit with his ankles shackled, did not address the court.

“While we had hoped for a lower sentence, we are certainly pleased that Judge Seabright rejected the government’s recommendation for an outrageous 17-year sentence and imposed a sentence of less than half of that,” said Broden in a statement to the Honolulu Star- Advertiser. “Dr. Puana is very grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support he received from patients who credited him with saving their lives, from members of the community of Hawaii Island and from other medical professionals.”

In 32 years of work as a defense attorney, Broden said he had never seen so many letters of support written on behalf of a client facing sentencing, nor had he seen so many people show up in court.

Puana’s prosecution was run by a team of federal prosecutors from San Diego led by Special Prosecutor and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph J.M. Orabona.

Wheat declined comment after Puana was sentenced.

Speaking in court Monday, Wheat acknowledged Puana’s commitment to sobriety.

“That took some strength and he did do that,” said Wheat.

However, Wheat noted it came after he was notified he was the target of a federal investigation. The letters of support for Puana fell into two categories — those who knew him before the federal government targeted him in 2018 and those who met him after that — said Wheat.

Wheat reminded the court that Puana was using eight to 10 hydrocodone pills a day while treating patients, including performing injections and other hands- on procedures. Puana “engaged in this conduct while he was under the influence,” and his actions were a “complete breach of everything a doctor should do.”

“He’s not telling them (people who met him after 2018) that he was a drug dealer,” said Wheat. “He used his charm and bedside manner … to fool them.”

As part of the scheme that landed him in federal prison, Puana also falsified handwritten medical records and treatment narratives for his friends and their family members, including drug tests that never happened.

In addition to faking the Puana Pain Clinic’s files for the recipients of his prescriptions, Puana kept a spiral-­bound notebook hidden in the clinic’s drug closet to conceal his multiyear addiction to hydrocodone and “preempt” any efforts to suggest the pill distribution was illegitimate, according to federal prosecutors.

More than 20 of Puana’s friends and family members, including his wife, attended the sentencing. Some shouted, “We love you, Rudy,” as Puana left the courtroom.

Broden asked Seabright to recommend he serve his time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Englewood, Colo., or the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton, S.D., locations close to Puana’s parents and adult children. Seabright told Broden he would make the recommendation.

“Good luck to you, Doctor,” said Seabright as he adjourned the proceedings.

“Thank you, sir,” replied Puana.