The future of Louis and Katherine Kealoha’s criminal defense could be decided today when a federal judge is scheduled to hear whether the cash-strapped power couple should be represented by court-appointed attorneys.
One motion to remove the Kealohas’ three attorneys was filed by the attorneys themselves, who said the couple lack the financial means to fund a defense of their complex case without court-appointed counsel. U.S. attorneys prosecuting the former police chief and his wife, the city’s deputy prosecutor, had filed an earlier motion asking that two of the couple’s attorneys be disqualified because of conflicts of interest.
Before today’s hearing, the Kealohas were expected to file individual financial disclosure statements that will remain under seal.
The Kealohas’ attorneys told Hawaii Chief District Judge J. Michael Seabright on Wednesday that the couple are living only on Louis Kealoha’s pension and have a daughter in college.
Kevin Sumida said his law firm has a mortgage on the Kealohas’ Hawaii Kai home worth up to $700,000 that’s intended to pay up to that amount of their defense.
Seabright said the couple’s home is roughly worth $1.24 million and has a $980,000 mortgage, a $90,000 home equity loan and the mortgage to Sumida’s firm.
A hearing Wednesday on the attorneys’ motion to be removed from the case got off to a rough start when Seabright said Sumida had mischaracterized statements in their motion.
“Defendants can no longer fund a defense,” a memorandum filed with the motion said. “Their assets have been effectively frozen by the federal government, and the terms of their bond prohibit them from even applying for a loan.”
“Maybe you should read the bond before writing something,” Seabright lectured Sumida as he stood next to his clients.
In fact, Seabright said, the Kealohas’ bond could allow them to apply for a loan with the approval of the court. Sumida acknowledged that no request to apply for a loan had been made to Seabright or to the court’s pretrial services.
“We need to be careful in representations to the court as to what facts are on the ground. … We need to be honest and have some integrity here,” Seabright said.
The judge said he also originally misunderstood the attorneys’ motion to be removed from the case because it was not written clearly.
Seabright had thought that the attorneys — Sumida, Myles Breiner and Gary Modafferi — wanted to stay on the case but be paid at the much lower, court-appointed rate.
Before the misunderstanding was cleared up, Seabright said that Sumida’s background in civil litigation did not qualify him to be appointed to a criminal case. Seabright said he would not appoint Modafferi because the attorney lives out of state, in Las Vegas.
Breiner has been handling Katherine Kealoha’s case while Modafferi was recently retained by Louis Kealoha to fight the criminal charges against him. Sumida has been handling the civil cases involving the Kealohas.
The memorandum the attorneys filed noted that federal prosecutors have estimated that the case will involve “a quarter of a million pages of evidence, some 500 witnesses and a trial consuming four months.”
Seabright alluded to the scope of the case when he said, “I understand this case is going to be very expensive.”
The motion by the Kealohas’ attorneys asks that the court appoint new attorneys from out of state.
The case against the Kealohas “is of such magnitude and complexity that there are no other local attorneys available who are both qualified and not suffering from potential conflicts of interest,” the memorandum said.
Seabright also continued hearing a separate motion filed by U.S. attorneys demanding that Breiner and Sumida be disqualified due to a slew of potential conflicts of interest.
Federal prosecutors, in their motion, said the Kealohas have a constitutional right to “conflict-free counsel.”
Breiner and Sumida cannot represent the Kealohas, U.S. attorneys said in court documents, because “their continuing obligations of loyalty and confidentiality towards both clients conflicts (sic) with their duty to provide K. Kealoha with a vigorous defense.”
The Kealohas, along with four current and former members of the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit, were charged in U.S. District Court on Oct. 20 with conspiring to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, Gerard Puana, for the theft of the mailbox from their home, and then covering it up.
The Kealohas, additionally, are accused of defrauding individuals and financial institutions of more than $1 million by, among other things, fabricating documents, misrepresenting facts, forging signatures, using aliases and stealing a police officer’s identity.
