Katherine Kealoha will go to jail as she awaits her sentencing in October.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright revoked Kealoha’s bail Friday and ordered her detained in the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.
The former city prosecutor, her former Honolulu police chief husband Louis Kealoha and two police officers who conspired to frame her uncle for the theft of her mailbox in June 2013 were convicted Thursday of conspiracy.
The jury also found them guilty of three obstruction of justice charges, after hearing evidence for 18 days and deliberating for one and a half days.
Louis Kealoha and the two convicted officers — Derek Hahn and Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen — remain free on bail until their sentencings in October. Federal prosecutors only sought to detain Katherine Kealoha.
One other defendant in the trial — retired HPD Major Gordon Shiraishi — was found not guilty of all charges.
Katherine Kealoha walks towards U.S. District Court Friday for a hearing where she was ordered detained until her sentencing in October.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat filed a brief in support of the government’s request to put Katherine Kealoha in jail shortly after Thursday’s guilty verdict. It was a strongly worded argument that described in detail why Kealoha cannot be trusted.
“For over a decade, Katherine Kealoha has repeatedly flaunted the law, leaving countless victims in her wake,” Wheat said.
“She cannot now — as she must — establish by ‘clear and convincing’ evidence that she is not likely to flee or pose a danger to the safety of any other person or the community.”
Wheat argued that Kealoha used her “extensive power as a lawyer and deputy prosecutor” to frame her uncle Gerard Puana for the theft of her mailbox on June 21, 2013.
“She did so through an endless web of lies and deceit,” Wheat said. “As the evidence at trial proved, Kealoha lies as easily as she draws breath.”
According to Wheat, Kealoha has repeatedly tried to undermine the government’s case, including by tampering with a witness after she was indicted.
She also tried to convince other potential witnesses that her alter ego, Alison Lee Wong, a person she used to carry out alleged acts of fraud and other criminal activity, was in fact a real person. Of course, Wong is not real, Wheat said. She is Katherine Kealoha.
Wheat pointed out that two people — Jesse Ebersole and Ransen Taito — have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy with Kealoha for providing false testimony to a federal grand jury.
Ebersole, a Big Island firefighter, was Kealoha’s secret boyfriend while Taito is an alleged victim of her financial crimes. She’s accused of stealing nearly $150,000 from him and his sister when they were minors under her guardianship.
Prosecutors had asked that Katherine Kealoha be taken into custody until her sentencing on Oct. 7.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
The brief notes that Kealoha faces at least two more criminal trials, one involving allegations of obstruction, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft and another involving a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Kealoha is accused along with her brother, Rudolph Puana, of running a prescription drug ring, in part, to help fuel his cocaine habit.
“Finally, Katherine Kealoha is a chronic malingerer, having previously feigned medical ailments to avoid accountability for her actions,” Wheat said.
“When she is under the microscope, Katherine Kealoha claims bad health as a shield to cover her misdeeds. But her health is suddenly no issue when she turns the scope on others.”
The federal prosecutor pointed out how Kealoha would continually delay depositions in a civil lawsuit the Puanas had filed against her by claiming she was ill.
She even provided a doctor’s note saying she was unable to take part in a deposition. Her attorney also said in a sworn statement that his client was suffering from “rather debilitating health problems.”
Wheat, however, undercut those excuses in his brief by pointing out that at the same time Kealoha was supposedly sick she was able to secure a 414-count indictment from a state grand jury, which was the largest indictment in state history.
“This case was later dismissed based on prosecutorial misconduct,” Wheat said.
The convicted defendants could face between five to eight years in prison, said Alexander Silvert, a federal public defender who represented Katherine Kealoha’s uncle Gerard Puana in the federal criminal trial in connection with the stolen mailbox.
But the judge has discretion to go higher, Silvert said.
Katherine and Louis Kealoha face another trial in October relating to financial crimes, bank fraud and identity theft.
Katherine Kealoha faces an additional trial in January for allegedly running a prescription drug trafficking ring with her younger brother, Rudolph Puana, an anesthesiologist.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 7. Louis Kealoha will be sentenced the following week, on Oct. 15.
The post Katherine Kealoha Is Sent To Jail Until Sentencing appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.