HPD Chief Ballard on the cost of the Kealoha’s actions

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Honolulu’s former police chief and his wife, once a top deputy working under elected prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro, were sentenced yesterday, bringing an end to this chapter in a long and ongoing federal investigation into public corruption in Honolulu. I recommend Nick Grube’s report on the sentencing over at Civil Beat (“Former HPD Police Chief And Prosecutor Wife Sentenced To Prison“), which does a good job of wrapping up the many parts of the story.

The sentences imposed by U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright were based on on a long exchange of legal memos between the government and defense attorneys that make up the sentencing process. Many of the documents and exhibits are sealed, meaning they are secret and not available to the public.

One that caught my eye is a declaration filed by HPD Chief Susan Ballard, calling the attention of Judge Seabright to the impact that the Kealoha’s plot against Katherine Kealoha’s uncle had on the department and on the public. It’s a little different perspective on the crimes of the former power couple.

First, Ballard describes the department’s area of jurisdiction.

The Department’s jurisdiction encompasses the entire island of Oahu, approximately 596 square miles. As of approximately April 2019, the Department had approximately 1,889 swom officers. The island of Oahu is divided into eight patrol districts. District 6 encompasses the Waikiki peninsula, approximately 1.5 square miles bordered by the Ala Wai Canal, Diamond Head, and the Pacific Ocean; District 7, spanning approximately 40 square miles, encompasses East Honolulu, including the Kahala neighborhood and the residence located at l0l8 Kealaolu Avenue.

The 1018 Kealaolu Avenue address is where the Kealohas were living when their mail box was supposedly stolen in what turned out to be the result of HPD officers attempting to frame Katherine’s uncle by faking the mailbox theft.

Ballard then explained that District 6, which includes Waikiki, has the highest “crime density per square mile” of any place on Oahu. It is also the heart of the visitor industry.

“The District 6 Crime Reduction Unit (CRU) concentrates on eliminating drugs, prostitution, and violent crimes within District 6. Because of the importance of the tourist industry to the local economy, there are two (2) CRU units assigned to District 6, one for days and one for nights,” Ballard’s declaration states.

For purposes of this affidavit, I have reviewed the trial testimony of Sgt. Daniel Sellers, formerly of the Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU). I understand that during his testimony, Sgt. Sellers stated that between 20 and 30 Department officers conducted 24-hour surveillance on Gerard Puana beginning June 25, 2Ol3 and ending June 29,2013. That included “close to 15 officers” from District 6 CRU; the remainder were officers assigned to CIU.

This type of transfer “significantly disrupts the operations of the Department,” Ballard wrote.

When resources were withdrawn from Waikiki to pursue the Puana surveillance, there were significant ripple effects.

Cases grow cold and crime goes unanswered without active investigation especially when they involve a transient population like tourists. Time is often of the essence when it comes to investigating cases involving tourists as witnesses/victims as they are only available to the officers for a short period. Seemingly routine and common processes such as interviewing witnesses/victims or conducting line ups becomes infinitely more difficult once the witness/victim leaves the island. Again, without CRU units available to help investigate and facilitate interviews and line ups, criminal investigations are covered by a much smaller group of officers who will eventually struggle to keep up with the caseload if the out of district assignment is prolonged.

Ballard said this transfer of resources to pursue Puana was, in her 35-years of experience in HPD, unprecedented.

Surveillance such as this would never have been undertaken for a solitary non-violent theft offense especially without any other evidence or intelligence elevating it in severity. For example, there was no evidence of this incident being part of a neighborhood crime spree or organized crime ring or anlthing else to indicate that this one event was worthy of all the resources that were expended. The commitment of such resources for a seemingly minor offense was impossible to justiff, not just within the [IPD, but to other law enforcement agencies and major city police departments. It caused significant embarrassment to the department locally as well as nationally.

Here are a few of the other sentencing documents you might find worth browsing.
[Note: Apologies for the broken or mistaken links contained in the earlier version of this post. I believe they’ve now been fixed.]

See:

Sentencing memo for Katherine Kealoha filed by prosecutors

Sentencing memo for Louis Kealoha filed by prosecutors

Sentencing agreement and appellate waiver re Louis Kealoha

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14 thoughts on “HPD Chief Ballard on the cost of the Kealoha’s actions”

  1. anonymous

    The documents at the end of your post is funny kine. The first one is for the Miske case n the second one for K. Kealoha cannot link. The third one for L. Kealoha is good. Keep up the good work!

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  2. Natalie

    What about attorneys’ fees that were spent related to the Kealoha lawsuits, e.g., the Honolulu Ethics Commission? I think it was about $1 million. There’s also the $250,000 given to Louis that the city may not get back. And how about the costs associated with cases Katherine was involved with that have or will be thrown out?

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  3. WhatMeWorry

    Now just sit for a minute to think about where we’d be today had the Kealohas gotten away with their crime spree.

    Katherine Kealoha’s innocent uncle sitting in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. A couple of children bilked of a modest trust fund to help their future to possibly pay for education or other living expenses. A trusting grandmother who lost her beloved home which she intended to pass down to her family in addition to being left virtually penniless, all in her 9th decade of life.

    Imagine the further abuse of HPD resources…waste of taxpayer money…corruption of even more officers that get ensnared into the Kealoha web…the perversion of justice…the distrust of the police in this town.

    There really ought to be an Alexander Silvert Day (Gerard Puana’s defense attorney) here in HNL in addition to an in-depth investigation as to why Public Defender Peter Wolff was ousted from his job despite respectful admiration from many in the HNL legal community.

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    1. Natalie

      That map shows rates for 2020. Based on media accounts, it seems violent crimes in other areas have gone up this year.

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  5. Natalie

    The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners puts out a Report to the Nations every other year. According to their 2020 report, corruption was the number one most common occupational fraud in the U.S. and Canada at 33%. (The report covers cases that were investigated from Jan. 2018 to Sept. 2019.)

    Corruption is also one of the costliest types of frauds. Katherine Kealoha wouldn’t have been able to perpetrate her frauds as long as she did had without the involvement of her husband and HPD.

    I think one of the things we’re really missing here is improvements to the system to mitigate the risk of this type of thing happening in the future. As far as I can tell, not much has changed in that arena.

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    1. WhatMeWorry

      If anything, the police commission under Alivado seems to be reverting back to the Taketa days of glowing reviews and head-in-sand attitudes as far as proactiveness and activism on keeping HPD accountable.

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            1. WhatMeWorry

              @Anonymous & Tip Of The Iceberg.

              Thanks for the links. It figures. IF there’s anyone that SHOULD NEVER BE on the police commission it’s Alivado.

              That Caldwell placed her there just confirms the kind of politician he is.

              2022 is when We The People need to put Kirky out to pasture next to Mufi for good!

  6. Friendly question

    Why, oh why, did the US Attorney ever take the alleged theft of a $300 mailbox to a full-blown federal jury trial to begin with, and how much did that nonsense cost? That was the original botched prosecution that ignited this s—tstorm, and everyone seems to have fogotten that the feds initially prosecuted the wrong guy.

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