It’s easy to get sidetracked by the sideshow elements of the Kealoha trial.
There were so many outrageous details — the laughable, imaginary Alison Lee Wong, the weird security video that was inexplicably pointed at a curbside mailbox, the Blaisdell-size jury pool, the daily fashion show of matching outfits — plus the emotional impact of Grandma Puana crying over her granddaughter’s betrayal.
Beyond all that, the truly disturbing core of all the Kealohas’ malfeasance is knowing that the Honolulu Police Department, our police department, was used to settle someone’s personal score.
Think of all the police resources used by the Kealohas to spy on people, manufacture lies, violate people’s rights. These were police man-hours that could have gone to solve actual crimes that affected actual citizens. These were police resources that Honolulu taxpayers covered to do Louis and Katherine Kealoha’s personal dirty work.
They treated Honolulu’s police department like it was their own private goon squad.
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The chief of police was glad-handing at community events, walking tall through the hallways and putting on his badge, gun and winning smile every morning and getting his handpicked hit team to clean up after his wife and fight her family battles.
The stench of corruption hangs over the Honolulu city prosecutor’s office as well. Katherine Kealoha, as deputy prosecutor, was bringing cases to trial for crimes smaller than what she herself was committing. People around her had to have known.
Yes, shame on the Kealohas, but shame on a local government where this can happen and the most common reaction isn’t shock and disbelief, but a frustrated resignation because we know there are plenty of things in town that aren’t clean and working right.
We have a new police chief and her leadership team and some new people on the Honolulu Police Commission, but they’re going to have to work long and hard to scrub the stink off the department. This went on too long, too many people had to have known and nobody stood up and said anything. They had to have joked about it in the police station elevator and at pau hana gatherings. No doubt there are many, many good people and true hearts wearing the badge and serving the community, but there was a bad apple at the top.
In the aftermath of the verdict, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell issued a terse statement saying, “The jury has reached a verdict and I respect the process and their decision. It’s time to move on.”
No, it’s not.
This was not an aberration. This was an infection.
What must happen now, what is critical — more critical than just about any other threat facing our community — is a fierce and fearless examination of all parts of the city agencies that allowed two high-powered, incredibly corrupt and not very sophisticated people to misuse public resources so egregiously for so long. Also crucial is the question of why it didn’t bother anyone on the inside enough to find the guts to say something when they saw something.
Police Commission Chairwoman Loretta Sheehan said what Caldwell should have:
“This is not something we should try to move away from quickly. We should be talking about it, examining it and figuring out ways to make sure that this never happens again.”
Though the Kealohas are gone, much of the framework that kept their deeds quiet remains.
