Former Prosecutor and Police Chief Sentenced for Framing Their Relative with a Crime to Conceal Their Own Fraud
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/fo ... ceal-their
HONOLULU, Hawaii – Former prosecutor Katherine Kealoha and former police chief Louis Kealoha were sentenced during separate hearings in federal court today to 13 years and seven years in prison, respectively, following a number of convictions, including conspiring to frame a relative with a crime to conceal their own fraud.
Chief U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright of the District of Hawaii also ordered the Kealohas to pay $454,984.78 and $237,698.56, respectively, in restitution to their victims, and ordered forfeiture of property representing proceeds of fraud, including the Kealohas’ former home in Honolulu, a Rolex watch, and $228,746.79. Katherine Kealoha is already in custody; Louis Kealoha was ordered to report to prison on April 12, 2021.
Judge Seabright rebuked the Kealohas for their “grotesque deprivation of civil rights,” which “staggered the community in many ways” and had “truly shaken confidence in our governing institutions.” He further remarked that “the Kealohas used their power to nurture, feed, and conceal their corrupt activity.”
The sentences imposed today mark the end of a series of criminal cases against the Kealohas. In June 2019, after six weeks of trial and one day of deliberation, a federal jury in Honolulu convicted the Honolulu power couple and Honolulu police officers Derek Hahn and Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen of conspiracy and attempted obstruction of justice pertaining to the false arrest and prosecution of Katherine’s uncle, Gerard Puana. The evidence at trial established that the Kealohas used their considerable power, including commandeering the Honolulu Police Department’s elite Criminal Intelligence Unit, to frame Gerard with stealing their mailbox. To accomplish this, the conspirators prepped the mailbox to be “stolen,” selectively edited grainy surveillance video to conceal their preparatory acts, falsely identified Gerard as the culprit captured by the video, falsified police reports, withheld and destroyed evidence, and repeatedly lied about their activity to investigators, the federal grand jury, and the District Court for the District of Hawaii.
So the (now former) Honolulu chief of police, who is basically the chief law-enforcement officer in Hawaii, and his prosecutor wife committed the following crimes:
- Stole over $200,000 from the prosecutor's elderly grandmother;
- Framed the grandmother's son for a felony when he started to notice the theft;
- Used their offices to actively conceal the fact that the prosecutor's brother was a drug dealer;
- Obtained more than $591,000 from other people through bank fraud and other fraudulent schemes;
- Filed false police reports of identify theft in an attempt to conceal their fraud;
- Created fraudulent trusts; and
- Lied to repeatedly to investigators and in court.