In filing from prison, Katherine Kealoha claims to have told prosecutors who stole her infamous mailbox

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Nearly a decade after the infamous mailbox theft at the Kealohas’ Kahala home, Katherine Kealoha revealed in a court filing that she knows who did it ― and told prosecutors.

She says it’s not her uncle, who she framed for the crime.

The disgraced ex-city prosecutor’s latest handwritten letter from the Federal Detention Center to the court is 32 pages. She wrote that sometime between November 2019 and January 2020, she had a meeting with federal agents and special prosecutor Assistant United States Attorney Michael Wheat.

She said she provided the first and last name “as well as the street address of the individual she believes to be the mailbox thief.” She adds that it is a belief “she holds with great certainty.”

Kealoha later accused Wheat of doing nothing with the information, writing that he “intentionally refrained from investigating this lead because he knows it will expose the real mailbox thief.”

She claims the details would prove there was never a conspiracy.

Kealoha, her husband Louis Kealoha, the ex-Honolulu police chief, and two other HPD officers were convicted of conspiracy for the staged mailbox theft.

Alexander Silvert represented the man they wrongfully accused.

Silvert, now a retired federal public defender, said he does not believe that the FBI or Wheat failed to follow up.

“That’s the only ploy in her case,” Silvert said, about Kealoha’s appeal case.

The letter is part of her argument of prosecutorial misconduct. It’s also her second attempt to get Wheat kicked off the case. The first attempt failed when a judge denied her request to have him removed.

Ken Lawson, of the University of Hawaii Law school, said Kealoha appears desperate.

“She’s grasping for straws,” he said.

Lawson said it happens a lot to people who lose at trial, “After the conviction it’s, let me blame my lawyer. Let me blame the prosecutor. Let me talk about the judge,” he said.

Kealoha is serving a 13 year sentence.

Victor Bakke, former city prosecutor turned defense attorney, called the recent claims by Kealoha “frivolous.”

“She has nothing else to do with her time than to basically harass the courts at this point.”

Kealoha does not reveal the name of the person she believes is the mailbox thief. And she does not say how she knows this person committed the crime.

“Common sense tells you that the only way she would know who stole the mailbox is if she helped that person steal the mailbox,” Bakke said.

No date has been set for when the judge will take up this latest claim in her appeal.

READ KEALOHA’S NEW FILING:

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