Some 413 potential jurors filled the Neal S. Blaisdell Center’s Pikake Room Monday in an extraordinary federal court proceeding to select jurors in the corruption trial for former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, his ex-deputy prosecutor wife Katherine and three current and former Honolulu Police Department officers.
J. Michael Seabright, the Chief U.S. District Judge for Hawaii, is presiding over the case and told those gathered that he plans to impanel 12 jurors and four alternates.
Opening statements could begin on May 22 or May 23 in U.S. District Court on Ala Moana Boulevard, Seabright said.
“Obviously we couldn’t fit everyone into a courtroom for today’s proceedings,” Seabright told those who gathered to fill out juror questionnaires in the Pikake Room, which has a posted capacity of 689 people.
“This is the most I’ve ever had,” Seabright said from a lectern on stage while the Kealohas and their attorneys watched from the front row.
The questionnaire asked jurors 31 questions ranging from basic personal information to whether they had any knowledge about the charges involving the Kealohas or “other Honolulu Police Department officers including Minh-Hung Nguyen, Derek Hahn, and Gordon Shiraishi? (This includes not only anything you may have seen or read in the media, but also anything you might have heard from relatives, friends or co-workers).”
The questionnaire also asked the potential jurors if they know, or even think they know, any of 176 potential witnesses, including the defendants.
Seabright emphasized to the potential jurors that “from today on” they should not discuss the case with anyone — including among themselves — until the jury begins deliberations. And Seabright directed them not to do their own research on the case, or consume any media coverage about it.
“This is an order,” Seabright said. “It is not optional.”
Any violations could result in a mistrial and “require this entire process to start over again,” Seabright said.
The Kealohas are accused of defrauding banks and relatives to fund a lavish lifestyle.
Prosecutors say Katherine Kealoha stole money from her grandmother and an uncle in a case that implicated the three former members of HPD’s Criminal Intelligence Unit. Prosecutors say when they threatened to expose the fraud, Kealoha tried to have her grandmother declared incapacitated and framed her uncle for a mailbox theft.
Katherine Kealoha and her brother, Hawaii island Dr. Rudolph Puana, an anesthesiologist and pain doctor, also have been charged by a federal grand jury with conspiring to distribute prescription pain medication oxycodone and fentanyl and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, which is also known as Xanax.
The indictment accuses her of covering up her brother’s involvement in the drug dealing conspiracy after a detective with CIU discovered the crime and told Kealoha about it. The indictment said Kealoha protected Puana so he could continue prescribing and distributing drugs.
Reporters are barred from speaking to potential witnesses and photography was restricted to outside of the Pikaki Room Monday.
All other aspects of the jury selection process are expected to be handled later this week in federal court on Ala Moana Boulevard, Seabright said.
