KEY POINTS IN CRIMINAL FILINGS
The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Honolulu police Lt. Derek Hahn clearly identify retired police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, city Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, as alleged co-conspirators in the federal investigation into corruption within the Honolulu Police Department. Here are some of the key points alleged by federal attorneys in the complaints this week against Hahn, HPD Officer Ming-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen and retired Maj. Gordon Shiraishi:
>> The investigation centers on the allegation that HPD officers conspired to frame Gerard Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, for stealing the Kealohas’ mailbox in June 2013. At the time, Puana was embroiled with the Kealohas in a civil dispute over the handling of family money.
>> Hahn, Nguyen and Shiraishi, who were all part of the Criminal Intelligence Division that looked into the mailbox theft, were among those who allegedly altered evidence and gave false information regarding the mailbox investigation and prosecution of Puana to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
>> Hahn, who in 2004 started a business with Katherine Kealoha, allegedly directed Officer Niall Silva to place into evidence only excised data recovered from the surveillance video from the Kealohas’ house.
>> The Kealohas and Nguyen claim the man lifting the mailbox in the video was Puana. An FBI agent, in an affidavit, states the man in the video “does not appear to be” Puana. The agent also claims there is reason to believe the mailbox “was ‘prepped’ to be stolen by a co-conspirator.”
>> Cellphone records show Hahn was at or near the Kealohas’ house on the afternoon of June 21, nine hours before the alleged theft, and again on the morning of June 22, the day after the theft. HPD records show Katherine Kealoha dialed 911 to report the theft at about 1:31 p.m. that day.
>> Silva told federal authorities that he was instructed by Hahn not to submit the entire hard drive from the Kealohas’ computer into evidence, but only portions of surveillance video that Silva had excised from the hard drive.
>> Telephone records show Hahn had repeated phone and text communications with both Kealohas on June 22 and during the predawn hours of June 23.
>> In December 2014, when Puana was on trial, prosecution witness Louis Kealoha identified his wife’s uncle as the man in the surveillance video. But the trial ended in a mistrial when then-Chief Kealoha, while on the witness stand, disclosed unsolicited information about Puana.
