Honolulu officials charged in Kealoha retirement payout case
STAR-ADVERTISER Former Honolulu Managing Director Roy Amemiya Jr. (left ), former city Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and former Honolulu Police Commission Chairman Max Sword STAR-ADVERTISER Former Honolulu Managing Director Roy Amemiya Jr. (left ), former city Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and former Honolulu Police Commission Chairman Max Sword Honolulu's former managing director, corporation counsel and police commission chairperson were formally charged with misdemeanor conspiracy by the U.S. Department of Justice today in connection with the $250, 000 retirement payment in 2017 to former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, according to federal court documents.
The charges are part of a. The single misdemeanor charge for each official is a departure from the felony charges secured against the former city officials more than three years ago.
Michael Wheat, the special prosecutor handling the case from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, retired on Dec. 31. Federal prosecutors have not said why they decided to settle a case they took to a grand jury and secured felony indictments on Dec. 16, 2021.
In January 2022, former Corporation Counsel Donna Yuk Lan Leong, ex-Honolulu Police Commission Chair Max John Sword and then-Mayor Kirk Caldwell's Managing Director Roy Keiji Amemiya Jr. entered not-guilty pleas in January 2022 to felony charges that they conspired to defraud the county and federal government by paying Kealoha to retire in 2017.
At a 10 a.m. hearing Tuesday before Senior U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi, Sword and Leong will agree to pay a $100, 000 fine and serve one year of supervised release as part of their plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Leong and Sword each signed a plea agreement to 'the count in the forthcoming superseding information, with a sentence of time served, one year supervised release, and restitution, ' according to federal court records.
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Amemiya entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, according to court documents.
The charge against Amemiya will be amended to a misdemeanor, and provided Amemiya abides by the conditions of the agreement, the charge against him will be dismissed as long as he is not convicted of a crime.
Amemiya's compliance will depend on 'certification by the Government's office, restitution, and a community service component.'
He has to pay a $50, 000 fine and serve two years of federal supervised release. Amemiya tried to have the case in January 2022.
'Starting Dec. 1, 2016 and continuing until July 2020, Amemiya, Leong, and Sword, 'while acting under color of law, did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, and agree together with each other and with others to deprive the residents of Honolulu, Hawaii, of the rights secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, namely, the right to procedural due process, ' according to the federal criminal information filed today.
Amemiya, Leong and Sword are free on $50, 000 bonds.
The trio was accused of conspiring to pay Kealoha with federal funds and money from the Honolulu Police Department's salary pool and avoiding City Council review and approval.
The investigation for Kea loha and his then-wife, former Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha.
Louis Kealoha was sentenced to seven years in prison and will have to pay back the $250, 000 settlement.
Katherine Kealoha received 13 years in prison for leading the operations that defrauded her grandmother out of her home and framed her uncle for stealing the Kealohas' mailbox.
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