The FBI says former Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha “participated in recreational cocaine use” with her brother and others involved with them in a drug distribution conspiracy.
The allegation is contained in
an FBI affidavit to support a search warrant request for the data on the cellphone Kealoha’s brother, Big Island physician
Rudolph B. Puana, was carrying when FBI agents arrested him
Feb. 12.
Kealoha and Puana are charged in a Feb. 7 federal grand jury indictment with conspiring to and distributing the prescription painkillers oxycodone and fentanyl, and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, or Xanax. The siblings are also charged with steering a Honolulu police investigation of the conspiracy away from them.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges and are scheduled to stand trial in April. The trial probably will get postponed because
Kealoha; her husband, retired Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha; and three former members of the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit are expected to be in the middle of trial on federal conspiracy and obstruction charges for allegedly staging the theft
of the Kealohas’ mailbox.
The indictment says Puana prescribed drugs
to his sister and four unindicted co-conspirators, and instructed the co-conspirators to sell or trade the drugs for cocaine. The FBI says Puana directed at least one co-conspirator to an obscure pharmacy on Oahu to avoid drawing attention and that when they got cocaine, he and the co-conspirators, including Kealoha, used it together.
One of the co-conspirators, identified as C.M., told the FBI that he and Puana, a childhood friend, have been regularly using a number of controlled substances together. He said they used testosterone to make themselves feel big, cocaine to get high and opioids and Xanax to help them remain calm.
The FBI says C.M. told them of a meeting in the summer of 2015 in a Honolulu apartment rented by Puana. In the meeting,
Kealoha and former CIU
Detective Daniel Sellers told C.M. and Puana of a drug
investigation against Tiffany Masunaga and former HPD officer Alan Ahn. The affidavit identifies Sellers as an HPD detective, Masunaga
as T.M. and Ahn as A.A. The indictment identifies Masunaga as one of the four
co-conspirators.
C.M. told the FBI he purchased cocaine from Masunaga and provided her oxycodone, fentanyl and
Xanax to sell. Masunaga and Ahn were arrested in August 2015, sometime after the meeting, and were later indicted on multiple state drug distribution charges. C.M. said he was never approached by HPD about the investigation or his involvement with Puana after the meeting.
The FBI says the two other co-conspirators, a husband and wife, told them they used cocaine with Puana but stopped around July, just before Puana went to the Betty Ford Center to treat his opioid addiction.
After that the couple said they used the money they got from selling the drugs Puana prescribed to them
to pay for their children’s private school tuition.
When Puana returned from drug treatment in
November, he agreed to speak to the FBI and federal prosecutors. The FBI says Puana admitted giving C.M. excessive amounts of oxycodone because C.M. could not afford the copayment. Puana said he started by
giving C.M. fentanyl for a back injury, switched to
oxycodone because C.M. needed something stronger, then back to fentanyl to wean him off oxycodone.
The FBI says Puana
admitted that he gave
Kealoha oxycodone
without a prescription
and that the Xanax, oxycodone and fentanyl found
in a Honolulu police raid
of Masunaga’s house came from him.
Katherine Kealoha’s
lawyer did not respond
to a request for comment. The lawyers for Puana, Masunaga, Ahn and Sellers declined to comment.
