Off The News: A settlement for Gerard Puana

As a deputy city prosecutor, Katherine Kealoha defrauded her own family — and after her uncle, Gerard Puana, sued Kealoha for stealing from him and his mother (her grandmother), she schemed to discredit him, falsely charging Puana with theft of a mailbox. The feds stepped in, and in 2019, Kealoha and her then-husband, former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, were convicted of conspiracy in framing her uncle.

A conclusion of sorts has now been reached for Puana: The City and County of Honolulu settled a civil lawsuit filed by him in 2017 for $2.85 million. The full extent of corruption by the Kealohas and others in their cohort is still under investigation.