Back in October, Civil Beat hosted an online panel discussion featuring Nick Grube, Jim Dooley, and myself. The topic drew a lot of interest: “Corruption, Crime and the Pursuit of Power in the Aloha State.”
During the panel, written questions were taken from the audience of several hundred. At the end of the panel, I copied and saved the questions that had been submitted.
Here are a few, with my answers off the top of my head.
Q: What is a “no show” job?
A: These are jobs held without the expectation that the person holding the job will actually show up for work regularly, or at all. The second superseding indictment of Mike Miske and his associates alleges Miske used Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control, and other Miske-controlled companies, for “the fraudulent ’employment’ of individuals whose ‘work’ consisted of engaging in acts of violence or fraud on behalf of the Miske Enterprise.”
This kind of payroll fraud is a form of “no show” job.
There have long been allegations that some highly paid “no show” jobs working on the docks in Honolulu Harbor have gone to individuals associated with organized crime. Several of Miske’s close associates were held positions as stevedores, according to available records.
Q: Are sole source specification for public construction contracts a form of political favors?
Yes. Specifications in sole source contracts offer a way to improperly steer contracts to a favored party by writing specs so narrowly that only the designated company or consultant fits the specifications. It is one form of procurement fraud in which governent procurement officials conspire with certain bidders to rig the bid process, or gain approval for sole source contracts.
Q: Was there a whistleblower in the Kealoha case? from hpd, dpa, or any other govt agency? or did it all come to light from uncle’s mailbox case?
I don’t know of any information about whistleblowers coming up in the federal prosecutions of the Kealohas. However, before the FBI got involved, the Honolulu Ethics Commission had been investigating allegations that likely came from inside sources, i.e, whistleblowers. Recall that Katherine and Louis Kealoha pulled out all stops in attacking the commission’s executive director and investigator, filing lawsuits and pushing politically behind the scenes, eventually putting enough pressure that the two were pushed out of their jobs. However, the whistleblowers have never been acknowledged, to the best of my knowledge.
Q: There are allegations of the Kealohas aggressively going after HPD Sgt Albert Lee in a DUI investigation. What is Albert Lees connection with the Kealohas other than the obvious?
On November 12, 2015, Mike Miske’s was seen driving a rented black Cadillac while using a cell phone. HPD officer Jared Spiker, working on a special federal traffic grant, flagged Miske down. After being told to pull over, Miske allegedly drove away before Spiker could write a citation. This brief encounter triggered a series of unusual events.
Spiker contacted Miske and arranged to meet to deliver the citation. When Miske didn’t show up, Spiker informed Lee, his sargeant. Spike and Lee then went to Miske’s M Nightclub just before 4 a.m. in an unsuccessful attempt to find Miske. Miske responded by calling Spiker on his private cell phone and appearing to threaten the officer, who had been with HPD for only a couple of years, threatening to “go to the top of the food chain” to have the charge dismissed. Miske also telephoned Roger Lau, a special assistant to then-Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro who also served as Kaneshiro’s campaign manager. According to documents later filed in court, Lau then instructed Katherine Kealoha to contact Spiker and tell him to stay away from Miske. Lau also called Spiker himself to send the same message.
Lau notified Kaneshiro of the situation in an email that identifies Miske only as “MM,” an indication Miske was already well known to Kaneshiro and his staff.
Several weeks after Spiker attempted to cite Miske, Lee said he received an anonymous tip that Miske was at his new luxury home on the ocean in Hawaii Kai. After receiving the tip, Lee said he “worked in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a number of federal agents to arrest Mr. Miske.”
Another member of Kaneshiro’s staff then submitted a complaint to HPD based on Lee’s appearance at M Nightclub and his participation in Miske’s arrest, alleging he exceeded his authority and was not objective in carrying out his duties as a police officer. Lee was cited sanctioned by HPD for failing to file for overtime for the time spent in the Miske arrest.
Q: What was Larry Mehau’s involvement in Organized Crime?
I’m going to punt on this for now, and instead give a shameless plug to Jim Dooley’s book, “Sunny Skies, Shady Characters: Cops, Killers, and Corruption in the Aloha State.”
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This actually sheds a lot more light on what the feds may have on Kaneshiro (aka Droopy Dog) and how they plan on addressing his abuse of power and corruption. Additionally it appears he and his “special assistant” actively tried to obstruct a federal operation!
One wonders whether Lau has received a target letter or subpoena.
One also wonders whether Katherine Kealoha spilled any beans on Kaneshiro in relation to her plea agreement on the remaining charges that did not go to trial.
Jim Dooley’s book is available in HI Libraries as well as Don Chapman’s “The Goodfather: The Life of Larry Mehau-in His Own Words”
Also suggest looking up “The Red Head-headed Hawaiian: The Inspiring Story about a Local Boy from Rural Hawaii Who Makes Good” by Cris Mckinny and Rudy Puana, M.D. Puana should be on trial next year.
Does anyone know if Mike Miske or his associates donated to Keith Kaneshiro’s campaigns? That would be helpful to know.
Shaking the tree a little more, Hawaii News Now had a good story the other day detailing additional Caldwell administration officials who have testified before the federal grand jury, along with former City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson and former Police Commission Chairman Max Sword.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/12/04/authorities-investigating-kealoha-corruption-scandal-now-turn-their-attention-city/
If the theory is correct that investigators are looking into potential wrongdoing regarding the $250K city payout/payoff that Louis Kealoha received when he stepped down as police chief, one wonders how Caldwell will personally fare since it is inconceivable that he played no role in the machinations that led to such a large and unusual expenditure of city funds. He could of course claim that he had believed the payout/payoff was made legally and in good faith based on legal interpretations he received, and that he did not personally know about or approve anything illegal.
But would anyone else who gets charged with a crime regarding the payout/payoff sing the feds a different tune?
It was also kind of striking the other day when Caldwell told the Star Advertiser he didn’t know the specific status of the city’s attempt to recoup the $250K payout/payoff and seemed to distance himself from any responsibility regarding that issue, saying he didn’t know exactly how far “they” had gone yet to get the money back.
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/12/04/hawaii-news/city-moves-to-get-250k-back-from-louis-kealoha/
And this was some eight months after HNN reported that the city had sent Kealoha a demand letter for the money!
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/03/11/city-sends-letter-federal-judge-ahead-ex-police-chiefs-sentencing/
Caldwell certainly never publicly objected to that “payout/payoff.” He never objected to the “independent” attack ads that helped get him re-elected either. He’s pretty good at ducking.
Ian, I distinctly remember a post here a few years ago which posed the question, Is Hawaii corrupt? As I recall the majority of comments from readers were indignant at the mere suggestion that Hawaii was corrupt. I was amazed by the naivete and lack of local moxie of these readers. Hawaii is endemically corrupt but not in the way many understand corruption, for example, every civil servant is corrupt, bribes are necessary to get anything done, etc. Corruption in Hawaii is on the Asian model (Japan and China) where “personal favors” are returned in kind, the letter of the law is more or less met while the intent of the law is completely debauched, political cover is provided for deals worked out in private, and so on. Civil servants are not corrupt but they understand they have to look the other way in certain circumstances where someone with “juice” needs something done under the cover of letter-of-the-law. The participants don’t consider “favors” corruption; it’s just the way business gets done and difficulties get smoothed. But bottom line, it’s endemic corruption.
Here’s a very basic example in my personal experience: the driving test to get a driver’s license. Someone I know who’s parent had “juice” (a favor was done and reciprocation was now expected, or a favor could be banked for future use with the bigshot) almost ran over a pedestrian during the driving test but this young person passed the driving test for a license in HNL no problem. Her test was driving around one block. Meanwhile a longhair hippie-looking kid (me) was taken way up into Makiki Heights and directed to parallel park on a steep hill between two parked cars. This may seem trivial but it’s just an example. the scale of “favors” quickly escalates.
The Kealohas would never have taken such liberties if they didn’t know how systemic corruption is in Hawaii. All they did was move the dial up a notch. Without federal intervention, they would have gotten away with it.
Those who indignantly protested the question about corruption in Hawaii a few years ago may want to revisit their assumptions.
“Corruption in Hawaii is on the Asian model.” Hadn’t realized corruption had an ethnic model; in fact, the conditions for corruption that you so aptly described, are common to all corruption cases, regardless of race.
Okay, I’m revisiting. But the Kealohas moved the dial more than one notch. And I’m grateful to Ian for helping us see the connection between that public corruption and the private thuggery and alleged murder in the Miske case.
Indeed. Miske apparently had a city councilperson in his pocket and got the councilperson to jump whenever he commanded. Oh yeah….TREVOR OZAWA.
Hi John–Chuck here, I remember you from the AFSC Area Committee in the 70s. I’m grateful to Ian as well. I’m also grateful to Ian for his dogged coverage of the rail plan years ago when he presented evidence that the plan had already been decided and public testimony was nothing more than procedural gloss. Whether the rail selection was a “done deal” or merely incompetence, or some mix of factors, who’s to say. But the rail fiasco’s roots were already visible here on Ian’s blog way back then (in my opinion of course).
The problem with the sort of corruption I attempted to summarize is it effortlessly generates a context in which “everyone has their price” and “you can’t refuse a request for a favor” Once that’s the foundation then “favors” go from linear to geometric consequences. In such a system the Kealoha’s actions have an internal logic. The surprise isn’t that they did what they did but that they couldn’t use the local system to evade consequences.
As a side comment, in my experience, those who “look away” will never discuss that with anyone they don’t know extremely well. And if they sense their friend is prone to being judgmental, they won’t discuss it even with an old friend. That’s one reason why it’s so poorly understood. The same is true in China and Japan in my personal experience. The level of trust required is like this: if they suspect you’ll go blabbing about what they tell you or get all judgmental, they won’t tell you.
Long time no see!
Three things about Kirk Caldwell. (1) I wonder whether paid corporate directorships are an example of “no-show” jobs. Perfectly legal, of course. (2) Paying $250,000 to make a corrupt police chief go away may have seemed like a bargain and better than leaving him in his position. (3) Caldwell has had enough foresight to spend some city money on infrastructure for bicycling, needed now in the pandemic and in a future, changing world. May his successors be at least as wise.
May his successors be wise enough to not make bicycling infrastructure a costly boondoggle, as timely suggested by a new audit.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/12/06/honolulus-bikeshare-program-is-costing-city-hundreds-thousands-lost-revenue/
Well, go through this book too:
In 2006, Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement and Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust, co-authored by Roth and Samuel Pailthorpe King,
Caldwell be claiming he don’t know nothing. He even did that with the ethics commission “I don’t know nothing about the ethics commission”.
There is no way he can hide from this hot ‘uala! He can’t spend away $250,000 without the council finding out about it.
It just makes me wonder – just WHAT is he hiding? And how big is the thing he’s hiding?
If I was seeking corruption I would sniff out the developers with magic height limit variances and then check the DPP employees bank accounts. The transit oriented development projects along the rail line would be the second place to check for corruption.
Is it corrupted Yes!
I like to see “Civil Beat” look into the (Department of Transportation) all the way from Top to Bottom to (Harbor Division). Past to present officials! Heard get choke lazy employees!