It’s been “all quiet on the western front” as of late in the Kealoha saga. I guess the news had to slow down at some point after 2 years of bombshell after bombshell being released, but still, it’s much less exciting.
Until today! As reported by Hawaii News Now, the city of Honolulu finally handed over Katherine Kealoha’s personnel file, the one that Civil Beat has been fighting to get for years. It should have been released long ago but her attorney Kevin Sumida has blocked it, claiming it contains personal information that could be harmful if released. What he really means is it contains potential evidence that shows her wielding her power as a prosecutor to go after political enemies and witnesses in her Federal corruption trial.
When Katherine was part of the Career Criminal Division, she took on the case of Albert Lee, a man who was arrested for DUI after crashing into a Hawaiian Electric Company building, climbing in the passenger seat, and claiming somebody else was driving. While the officers in the Honolulu Police Department are pretty terrible at their jobs, even they could solve that case.
He almost got away with the perfect crime
That’s beside the point. Katherine Kealoha took the case in the Career Criminal Division despite the fact that Albert Lee was a former police sergeant and had never been arrested before. He was pretty much the exact opposite of a career criminal. So why would Katherine go out of her way to prosecute him to the fullest extent? Because he was a witness against her in her ongoing public corruption trial. Yep, she was being prosecuted and continued to engage in the same criminal behavior. Her arrogance knows no bounds.
Albert Lee’s attorney, Megan Kau, had been claiming a conflict of interest for months but was ignored until Keith Kaneshiro took a leave of absence for being just as corrupt and stupid as Katherine. If that hadn’t happened, this would still be going on.
Here’s the kicker – The city finally turned over the documents requested by the prosecutor but conveniently left out the parts that matter AKA memos and documentation from her time as head of the Career Criminal Division. So it’s basically a useless set of documents. Katherine’s lawyer is delaying the release as long as possible so avoid yet another set of criminal charges but also because the trial is nearing dangerously close to expiring for speedy trial violations, effectively letting Katherine off the hook.
It seems that even when we catch criminals like Katherine Kealoha red-handed, justice will not be served. I’ve never seen a more “slam dunk” case this mismanaged, mishandled and tainted by conflicts of interest. The lack of urgency on display here is amazing. Judge Kubo should be furious at this, or at least point it out for what it is. Instead, his quote was, “Something stinks in this case and something doesn’t size up.” Wow, really Judge? Have you been sleeping throughout the entire trial? The entire case is Katherine blatantly trying to cover up her crimes and delay the trial as long as possible so that it will get thrown out. How do you not see this?
The saga will continue and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Katherine gets off without any jail time whatsoever. She knows how to play these people to get exactly what she wants, and they seem oblivious to it or willfully ignorant because they don’t want to come under any more scrutiny. If the city and the prosecutor’s office really wanted to save face, they would prosecute Katherine to the fullest extent of the law and put her in jail for the rest of her life. Anything less is a failure of justice and further proof that city officials put their reputation and personal relationships before helping the people of Hawaii.