Sometime in 2015 or 2016, Katherine Kealoha–at the time, a top deputy prosecutor in Honolulu and wife of then-Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha–took the very unusual step of intervening in a traffic case on behalf of a Honolulu businessman, according to a published account by Civil Beat’s Nick Grube.

The man allegedly fled the scene after being stopped for using a cell phone while driving, then later telephoned the officer involved and verbally threatened to essentially go over his head to someone higher in the political “food chain” for support, according to the Civil Beat story.

Katherine Kealoha reportedly personally called the police officer who made the traffic stop and told him to back off, and also had one of her investigators in the prosecutor’s office file an internal affairs complaint against the officer’s sergeant.

The businessman was identified by Civil Beat as Michael Miske, citing police reports on the incident. Miske has a number of local business interests. He also has a long criminal history dating back to the 1990s, and a violent reputation. More recently, he allegedly took part in or directed several assaults when he was part-owner and apparently an on-site manager of the popular M Nightclub in Restaurant Row. The club closed in late 2016 as a result of troubles with the Honolulu Liquor Commission and legal problems stemming from a series of similar allegations of assaults of patrons by bouncers.

If true, Kealoha’s actions are quite extraordinary because, at the same time she was aggressively intervening in the traffic case, apparently to shield Miske from any adverse action, Miske and a co-defendent were being prosecuted by her office on felony charges stemming from an alleged late night assault outside the nightclub in December 2012.

The incident that gave rise to the criminal case is described in a prior civil lawsuit against Miske. According to court records in that case, local promoter Michael Galmiche and several friends were handing out flyers to pedestrians and drivers leaving Restaurant Row about 3:45 a.m. on December 15, 2012. They appear to have been targeting customers leaving Miske’s M Nightclub at closing time. The flyers were advertising an upcoming event Galmiche was promoting. Across Pohukaina Street, a projector had been set up to display additional images promoting the event. Galmiche is best known for putting on large New Year’s Eve events which at this time were being held a Kakaako’s Waterfront Park.

Miske, backed up by several bouncers or other employees of M Nightclub, allegedly appeared on the street and demanded that Galmiche turn off the projector and stop promoting his event near the nightclub.

Galmiche alleges he was then “violently assaulted and battered,” and “repeatedly punched and kicked in his head and body.” A woman who ran to his aid and tried to shield him from further blows was herself assaulted, including being kicked in the head, the lawsuit alleged.

Miske then kicked the portable generator to the curb, then picked up and threw the projector and an attached laptop computer to the ground, the lawsuit said.

John Stancil, Miske’s half-brother and a bouncer at the nightclub, pleaded no contest to reduced charges last year. Miske’s case, after repeated delays, is now scheduled for trial in July 2019. Prosecutors have filed notice that because of prior felony convictions, Miske would be eligible for extended sentences if convicted of the pending charges.

The Galmiche case is now being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office, which took over the case from the prosecutor’s office in May 2017.

This is just one of a string of cases alleging that Micheal Miske was involved in or directed assaults on customers at the club over several years.

In one case that made headlines at the time, Miske allegedly hit NFL player and Pro Bowl participant Trent Williams over the head with a champagne bottle during a January 2013 melee at the nightclub. Criminal assault charges filed against Miske were dropped when Williams declined to return to Hawaii to appear at the trial.

According to police reports, Williams and his brother said they were asked to leave the club after complaining that the crowd was being sprayed with champagne. As they tried to ask why they were being told to leave, the men told police they were both shot with a Taser or electric gun of some kind, and Trent Williams was hit on the head with a champagne bottle.

Miske and Stancil told police they were just trying to keep rowdy patrons in line, and that no Taser had been used. However, police were unable to obtain the club’s video surveillance recordings, and nightclub security staff said a “glitch” had wiped out the recording so that nothing could be viewed or recovered.

Another incident in August 2012 was described in detail by the victim, accompanied by photographs, and later reposted with permission on a blog maintained by Damon Tucker (see “Victim in Alleged “M” Nightclub Beating Speaks Up“).

And in January 2016, a group of five men went public with a chilling account of being assaulted by bouncers at the club (“Honolulu nightclub patrons allege bouncers assaulted them“).

Several other civil lawsuits based on similar allegations named Miske or the nightclub as defendants. Some of these were settled, although terms of the settlements remain confidential.

None of the allegations made in this series of incidents have yet been upheld in court, so they can’t be taken as the whole truth.

However, they must have been known to Katherine Kealoha when, inexplicably, she chose to intervene in an unrelated situation on Miske’s behalf.

I would expect we’re going to hear more about this peculiar relationship between the prosecutor and this particular Honolulu businessman as the corruption case against the Kealohas moves forward.