Police commissioner calls out City Council during talk on public corruption scandal

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu City Council members want an audit done of local law enforcement agencies, including the Honolulu Police Department, Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the Ethics Commission.

Council members heard testimony Tuesday on a resolution for more oversight after the conviction of ex-Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, ex-Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.

Federal prosecutors are not done yet. They are still targeting the head of the city’s civil legal department, Donna Leong, and Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro.

While Kaneshiro is on leave, Acting Prosecutor Dwight Nadamoto is running the office.

He testified at the council meeting regarding the resolution that laid out some of the actions of Mrs. Kealoha.

"In the last paragraph (of the resolution) where it’s reported, it talks about Katherine Kealoha helping avoid criminal prosecution for somebody charged with a DUI, that involved a confidential informant,” Nadamoto told the council.

But multiple sources tell Hawaii News Now, Nadamoto is wrong.

The DUI driver he is referring to, author Chris McKinney, was a personal friend of Kealoha and he is now a listed co-conspirator in one of the federal indictments.

Last month, retired state judge David Lo was escorted by FBI agents to the grand jury room in the federal courthouse. Lo was the judge for McKinney’s 2015 DUI case.

Nadamoto also brought up the speeding ticket Katherine Kealoha convinced a judge to throw out for her electrician.

“Why his excessive speeding was dismissed? That was part of an investigation into police corruption,” Nadamoto told council members.

Again, multiple sources say, that is also not true.

The electrician himself told Hawaii News Now that Mrs. Kealoha fixed the speeding ticket for no reason.

Loretta Sheehan, chair of the Honolulu Police Commission, expressed disbelief that Nadamoto would defend the actions of the office, and that not one council member questioned it.

“None of you asked what the nature of the criminal investigation was and why that happened since it was brought to your attention. That’s the kind of conversations that would be useful for us to have at the city and county level instead of counting on the federal authorities to solve all of our problems,” Sheehan bluntly told council members.

Sheehan said more dialogue and questioning of city leaders would help avoid another scandal. She also said, more transparency is needed.

“The more open your government is, the more honest your government is going to be. That’s just obvious."

The council deferred a decision on the resolution so the audit could be added.

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