Forthcoming guilty pleas to federal conspiracy charges from two former top-tier members of Honolulu’s city administration — former Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and ex-Police Commission chair Max Sword — will leave a lasting scar on this city’s history. They deepen a lasting shame imposed on Oahu by criminal acts perpetrated by former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his former wife and ex-deputy prosecutor, Katherine Kealoha.
The details of this insidious corruption must never be forgotten or dismissed as past history. They must be stamped indelibly in Hawaii’s memory, as a caution against accepting lax, incompetent, irresponsible or even criminally conspiratory “leadership,” as in the cases of Leong and Sword, that enables such wrongdoing.
Multiple, heinous crimes were committed by the Kealohas, together and singly: repulsive schemes to get money rightfully belonging to Katherine Kealoha’s own grandmother, and a sibling’s children — for whom, incredibly, Kealoha was legal guardian; concealing knowledge, based on Katherine Kealoha’s own drug use, that her brother, a medical doctor, was a drug peddler; criminal conspiracy by the Kealohas, along with other Honolulu police officers, to frame an innocent man, Katherine Kealoha’s uncle, for a federal crime.
Now, Leong and Sword have agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor federal conspiracy charges on March 4, in connection with their scheme to divert $250,000 from the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) payroll budget for a retirement payment in 2017 to then-Chief Kealoha. They allegedly persuaded HPD to tell the City Council that the department’s request for additional funds was caused by a “salary shortfall.” A misdemeanor it may be, but the crime must be considered against the backdrop of the Kealohas’ years-long criminality.
When Leong and Sword engineered the $250,000 payment, HPD officer Niall Silva had already pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, admitting under oath that the Kealohas enlisted him in a scheme — a now-notorious stolen mailbox setup, using grainy security footage created to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle. Nonetheless, Leong and Sword conspired to pay Louis Kealoha to go away, concealing the means of payment from City Council and public review. Had this conspiracy been successful, with allegations of the Kealohas’ wrongdoing swept under the rug, the people of Honolulu would have been done a grievous wrong.
Leong, Sword and Roy Amemiya Jr., then Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s managing director, were originally indicted on felony conspiracy charges in 2021, charging that they conspired to “embezzle, steal, obtain by fraud and otherwise without authority” the money to pay off Kealoha. All three initially pleaded not guilty and were free on $50,000 bonds.
The misdemeanor to which Leong and Sword have agreed to plead guilty will charge them with “conspiracy to deprive the residents of Honolulu, Hawaii of civil rights.” Each will pay a $100,000 fine, be credited with “time served,” plus one year of supervised release.
Amemiya will appear in court March 4 following Leong and Sword. He has a deferred-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, amending his charge to a misdemeanor and allowing for the charge to be dismissed after paying a $50,000 fine, plus two years of federal supervised release.
Katherine Kealoha received 13 years in prison for her crimes. Former Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro, her direct supervisor throughout her criminal actions, came under federal investigation and stood trial in connection with a separate alleged conspiracy to manipulate the justice system, but a jury returned a not guilty verdict.
Louis Kealoha was sentenced to seven years in prison and is required to pay back the $250,000 settlement, because he was convicted of a crime after he agreed to retire. This money must be clawed back, so that no future lawbreaker believes that crime pays for anyone on the city’s payroll.
