My column in Civil Beat this week tries to connect the dots between the indictment of the former Honolulu Police chief and his wife, and the ouster of longtime city ethics commission executive director, Charles “Chuck” Totto.
Totto and the commission’s former investigator, Letha DeCaires, were apparently taking aggressive steps to investigate pieces of what federal prosecutors now see as a conspiracy involving a number of HPD officers as well as Katherine Kealoha, a ranking deputy prosecutor.
There were apparently at least 16 separate ethics cases they were pursuing that were part of their efforts. It’s unclear whether they knew at the time that these cases were part of what’s now being referred to as one of the largest public corruption cases in island history. And the Kealohas fought back with a frontal attack on both Totto and DeCaires in an effort to stop the ethics probes.
Anyway, take a look if you’re interested. Remember that Civil Beat is no longer behind a pay wall, although your support would be appreciated.
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Thank you, Ian. I’ve always believed it was wrong for the Keaholas to sue Chuck, Letha and the Ethics Commission.
Part of the fallout from Chuck’s resignation is that the Honolulu City Council called for an audit of the Ethics Commission. That audit went through the initial RFP phases but was then abruptly cancelled 6/30/17. I was told that it has been delayed until June 2018, and when I asked for more information, I was told the auditor was unable to elaborate. It would be good to know who called for the delay and why.
One hypothesis is that the possibility of interfering with a federal prosecution occurred to somebody. Just speculating. No knowledge of what actually happened.