The grandmother of Katherine Kealoha, wife of Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, is asking a state jury to award her $1 million in punitive damages in her civil claim against her granddaughter.
The grandmother, 95-year-old Florence Puana, is suing Kealoha, a deputy city prosecutor, over money from a reverse mortgage that Kealoha arranged on Puana’s Maunalani Heights home.
Puana’s son, Gerard, is also suing Kealoha over $70,000 he claims he gave his niece to invest and for safekeeping.
Kealoha countersued, denying that she owes her grandmother any money or that her uncle gave her any money and that the Puanas made those claims to discredit her.
The Circuit Court jury heard closing arguments in the case Wednesday.
In addition to the $1 million, Gerald Kurashima, the Puanas’ lawyer, asked the jury to award the grandmother $50,000 for the stress she suffered over the matter.
"She suffered emotional distress because she’s been betrayed by her granddaughter," Kurashima said.
Most of the $514,474 from the reverse mortgage went to buy a Salt Lake condominium for Gerard Puana. The grandmother claims Kealoha spent the remainder without her authorization.
Kurashima asked the jurors to either award the grandmother the $148,000 left over or the difference between the $681,000 Florence Puana spent to pay off the reverse mortgage and the $360,514 spent on the condominium.
In addition, Kurashima asked the jury to award Kealoha’s uncle the money Gerard Puana claims he gave his niece, the interest he claims Kealoha promised him, $25,000 for the stress she put him through and $250,000 in punitive damages.
Kealoha testified that reverse mortgage money left over from the condominium purchase was owed to her because she put up her own money on the real estate transaction. She said her grandmother authorized the rest of the expenditures, including payments on the maintenance fees and purchase of furniture for the condominium.
She said that even after all of the money was spent, she continued to use her own money to cover expenses at her grandmother’s request, including twice posting bail for her uncle and buying him items he needed for his stay at a residential drug-treatment facility.
Her lawyer, Kevin Sumida, asked the jury Wednesday to award Kealoha the $248,787 in attorney fees it cost to defend her against the Puanas’ claims and $210,000 in punitive damages against the uncle. He also asked the jurors to award Kealoha $20,000 for the mental anguish the Puanas put her through.
"Kathy is now going to know her grandmother — who she loves, and once loved her — will go to her grave believing that her own granddaughter stole from her, that this granddaughter betrayed her," Sumida said.
