The Star-Advertiser this morning ran a top-of-the-front-page story with the headline, “Criminal Indictments Loom,” accompanied by photos of former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife.

The lead paragraph makes a bold statement:

Court documents filed by federal attorneys Wednesday indicate they intend to charge retired Honolulu police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, city Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, as part of their two-year-long case alleging a criminal conspiracy at the Police Department.

But as I read through the story looking for where the prosecutors’ intentions can be seen in the documents, I couldn’t find any direct reference.

The closest is that the chief and his wife were tagged as “co-conspirators” in the case, but it’s not uncommon for co-conspirators to avoid being dragged into criminal cases.

Also slipped into the story is that the grand jury that has been gathering evidence expires today, hence the flurry of indictments in the past few days.

It was also reported in the story that search warrants were executed at two homes occupied by the Kealoha’s, but no indication that the supporting affidavits said anything about an intent to indict.

I actually don’t doubt the premise, that both the chief and his wife are likely to be indicted. But I do wonder about that direct reference to court documents which wasn’t backed up.

Now I’ll have to dig through other reports to see whether any other news media filled in that gap.