Category Archives: Police

Shoplifting is not a capital offense

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Before discussing the fatal shooting by police officers in Mililani a week or so ago, let’s make one thing perfectly clear. First, Hawaii does not have a death penalty for any criminal offenses. And, second, even if we did, shoplifting would not be considered a capital offense eligible for that ultimate sanction.

HPD Chief Susan Ballard, at a press conference: “She said police were ‘reasonably certain’ the man they shot was the shoplifting suspect.”

Other news stories said the victim “fit the description” of the suspected shoplifter.

That’s a pretty flimsy basis for executing someone. So why should we accept any “explanations” of how and why police killed this “suspected” shoplifter?

Unfortunately, this problem is not new. And it stems from HPD’s reliance on a tactic that involves police officers surrounding a suspect’s vehicle with their own cars and then approaching the suspect on foot, immediately putting themselves at risk if the driver attempts to flee. It’s the tactic that immediately creates a situation in which the use of deadly force can be “justified” as a way to prevent harm to the officer, even if the officer created the danger by setting up the situation.

The same issue came up under similar circumstances back in 2014 (see ilind.net, “Could Honolulu police have avoided recent shootings?”).

At that time, I observed:

So we have more fatal police shootings than most mainland cities, and more than half of the shootings occur when police are confronting a car’s occupants.

Clearly, it’s a dangerous kind of encounter. The data suggest that perhaps there are other ways to handle these situations that reduce the number of times they turn lethal. Do other major police departments have different approaches to these confrontations? Are there “best practices” that have yet to be adopted here? Could the shootings have been avoided?

The makeup of the Honolulu Police Commission has changed dramatically since 2014. It’s time that the “new” commission exerted its oversight authority by identifying HPD’s policies and procedures for such situations, and examining them in light of “best practices” nationwide.

Honolulu is a relatively safe community with relatively low levels of serious violent crime. It shouldn’t be rocket science to reduce the number of officer involved shootings.

Did Kealoha stack the CIU?

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Here’s my thinking about the “Big Picture” in the case of HPD’s former chief and his wife, once a top city prosecutor.

The thing most striking to me is that the alleged fake mailbox theft involved several members of an elite squad within the Honolulu Police Department, the Criminal Intelligence Unit.

The CIU wasn’t supposed to be involved in investigating everyday crimes.

Here’s how the federal indictment describes the CIU:

The unit of HPD responsible for investigating criminal offenses and assisting in their prosecution was the Criminal Investigation Division(“CID”). A separate, federally-authorized and specialized imit of HPD called the Criminal Intelligence Unit(“CIU”) was responsible for gathering intelligence and data on organized crime, terrorism, and gang threats facing the City and County of Honolulu.

The members of CIU did not collect evidence to be used in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases, but instead, passed intelligence information about criminal threats to other units in HPD and federal law enforcement partners. Because of their specialized duties and responsibilities, officers in CIU were supervised by a lieutenant, who reported to a captain, who ultimately reported to the Chief of Police, which from 2009 to 2017 was L. KEALOHA. Due to that close relationship, the Chief of Police played a direct role in selecting and appointing officers to CIU.

Also on the list of “criminal threats” addressed by CIU would be political corruption and certain white collar crimes.

Several CIU members were charged along with the Kealohas, and most had personal ties to the chief or, more often, his wife.

Kealoha promoted HPD officer Gordon Shiraishi to the rank of Captain and placed him in charge of CIU in “approximately 2011”. Kealoha and Shiraishi joined the department at the same time, and had graduated in the same Police Academy training class in 1983.

Daniel Sellers was named to CIU in 2009, moved briefly to CID, and was then promoted to Detective in CIU in 2011. Sellers and Katherine Kealoha “met in high school, dated for several years, and continued and social and professional relationship for over 20 years,” according to the indictment.

Minh-Hung Nguyen, who was married to Katherine Kealoha’s neice, was assigned to CIU in 2012. He and his wife apparently lived with the Kealohas at their residence on Kealaolu Avenue in Kahala.

Derek Wayne Hahn was named to CIU in 2013 at the suggestion of Chief Kealoha, and became the lieutenant in the unit. In 2014, he and Katherine Kealoha formed a new solar business, Discount Energy Solutions LLC, along with Bronson Tokioka. Hahn withdrew from the company just seven months later. The company was dissolved in 2016, state business registration records show.

It’s likely natural that the chief wanted to reward his own people with these choice assignments, but was he also concerned about staying informed about what federal investigations CIU was partnering in?

The federal indictment alleges that the Kealohas, and their co-defendants, staged the mailbox theft as part of a broader scheme to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, who had accused her of stealing from family members. The group of defendants allegedly removed, tampered with, or destroyed vital evidence in the case, fabricated other documents, failed to document their actions, conducted illegal surveillance, coached witnesses in lying to the federal grand jury, then presented false testimony to postal inspectors, FBI agents, and during grand jury and court proceedings.

Was this the only time that this unit, charged with keeping track of everything from organized crime to political corruption, went off the rails in this way? If they could frame defendants, could they also steer investigations away from other possible defendants in unrelated investigations? If the federal allegations proved to be true, then these police officers were certainly capable of it.

Sellers and another retired CIU detective, Niall Silva, have entered guilty pleas, along with several others who were not HPD officers. They are believed to be cooperating with the continuing investigation.

My guess is that before the current grand jury (or grand juries) complete their work, we could very well see the investigation expand in this way.

Hawaii News Now gets scoop on widening federal investigation

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Hawaii News Now reporter Lynn Kawano had another scoop on Tuesday with a report that the First Deputy in Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro’s office has received a “subject letter” from the Department of Justice.

The letter is a notice that the recipient’s conduct is considered “within the scope of a Grand Jury’s investigation.”

The grand jury is continuing a probe that led to indictments in October 2017 against former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, his wife, Katherine Kealoha, a top city prosecutor, and a group of Honolulu police officers accused of conspiring to fabricate a criminal case against a Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, who had a pending lawsuit accusing her of misappropriating funds from family members.

As Kawano reported: “The development is significant as it represents the first official notification that an ongoing public corruption scandal — with ex-Police Chief Louis Kealoha at its center — has extended beyond the Honolulu Police Department.”

A mainland law firm’s website offers this definition of a “subject”:

Subject of an Investigation: The term “subject of an investigation” has a particular meaning within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). According to the DOJ Handbook, a “subject” is: “a person whose conduct is within the scope of a Grand Jury’s investigation.” A subject is somewhere between a target and a witness. A subject has engaged in conduct that may look suspicious or unethical, but the prosecutor isn’t certain that a provable crime has been committed and wants to do more investigating in order to be sure.

Receiving such a letter isn’t good news.

Kawano reported:

“It scares the bejeezus out of people,” said Ken Lawson, of the University of Hawaii Richardson Law School.

Lawson said a subject letter is one level below a target letter, but it’s not something that should be taken lightly.

“It’s like any day now they could be knocking on my door. It puts the fear in people.”

This is a successor to the original grand jury that charged the Kealoha’s and the HPD officers. It sounds like things are heating up once again in the spreading scandal.

Another note. Kawano reported last week that a 2015 lawsuit filed by the Kealoha’s against the city ethics commission, along with its then-director and investigator, has been dismissed. The couple has sued to block the commission from pursuing an investigation that, in hindsight, was tracking some of the same allegedly illegal actions that eventually led to the federal indictments of the Kealohas filed late last year.

Dismissal of the case provides further vindication of the actions by the commission’s former executive director, Chuck Totto, and investigator, retired HPD captain Letha DeCaires. Both lost their jobs in the wake of the Kealoha’s lawsuit.

In a quick online search, I was unable to find any other news reports of the dismissal beyond that of Hawaii News Now. That’s unfortunate.

2018 HPD Community Survey

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Here’s your chance to provide feedback to the Honolulu Police Department.

From the HPD website:

The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) encourages Oahu residents to take an online survey between August 1 and September 30, 2018, to provide public feedback on police services. The HPD is committed to providing consistent and quality police services, and the community’s input plays an important role when examining and evaluating the department’s performance as a law enforcement agency.

To take the survey, click here. All survey responses and comments will be kept confidential.