Former Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katherine Kealoha would receive a sentence of 14 years in prison and her estranged husband, former Police Chief Louis Kealoha, a sentence of seven years and three months under recommendations released Friday evening from U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat.
The Kealohas are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
In addition, Katherine Kealoha submitted her resignation from practicing law, dated March 3. Kealoha resigned in lieu of discipline or disbarment for her crimes.
In June the Kealohas were found guilty in a public corruption case of conspiring to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, Gerard Puana, in the alleged theft of their Kahala home mailbox and lying to cover up their scheme. Puana and his mother, Florence Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s grandmother, had begun to uncover plans for the Kealohas to use proceeds from a reverse mortgage on her home to finance their lavish lifestyle.
Several police officers were also convicted in the mailbox fraud, including Minh-Hung Nguyen and Derek Wayne Hahn, whose sentencing will take place Wednesday.
Katherine Kealoha, the trustee for two minor children, Ransen and Ariano Taito, also stole money from their trust to pay off several fraudulent loans obtained by the Kealohas.
The pair pleaded guilty in October to financial crimes involving bank fraud and identity theft. Kealoha also was found guilty of misprision of a felony — for not reporting alleged illegal activity committed by her brother, Rudolph Puana.
“Katherine Kealoha ruthlessly stole the Taito children’s inheritance after she was appointed to guard and protect them,” the recommendation said. “She then stole her nonagenarian grandmother’s dream of passing her family home to her children. … When her plan began to unravel, and her uncle stepped in to help her grandma, he needed to be eliminated, too. … She also misused and abused her prosecutorial power” to protect her brother from the consequences of dealing drugs.
The recommendation is that she be sentenced to 168 months in prison and five years’ probation. She is also to pay restitution to the Taitos and to Gerard and Florence Puana — who died Feb. 13 at the age of 100 — totaling $237,698.56.
Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard, who replaced Louis Kealoha when he retired while under investigation by the FBI in 2017, submitted a declaration for the sentencing.
Noting that “20-30 Department officers conducted 24-hour surveillance on Gerard Puana,” including officers pulled out of Waikiki, she said, “during my 34 years with the Department, I have never seen or heard of another non-violent theft offense, such as an alleged mailbox theft, divert as many Department resources as occurred in the surveillance of Mr. Puana.”
The actions of Louis Kealoha, she said, “significantly damaged the reputation of the Department. Surveillance such as this would never have been undertaken for a solitary, non-violent theft offense. … The commitment of such resources for a seemingly minor offense was impossible to justify.”
The recommendations from Wheat will be heard by Judge J. Michael Seabright during Tuesday’s sentencing. Katherine Kealoha will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m., and Louis Kealoha will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m.
