HONOLULU (AP) — A retired officer will be sentenced for his part in a case that was dropped against a man who says authorities attempted to frame him for stealing the Honolulu police chief’s mailbox. ADVERTISING HONOLULU (AP) — A
HONOLULU (AP) — A retired officer will be sentenced for his part in a case that was dropped against a man who says authorities attempted to frame him for stealing the Honolulu police chief’s mailbox.
Attorney William Harrison says 52-year-old Niall Silva takes full responsibility.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Silva made a very regrettable decision to sign off on some documents presented to him by other police officers. Those documents were false. He then made the next regrettable decision in continuing that falsehood with the court and a grand jury,” said Silva’s attorney, William Harrison.
Prosecutor Michael Wheat said Silva cooperated and will likely get much less than the five-year prison sentence he’s facing April 3.
Gerard Puana says his niece, deputy prosecutor Katherine Kealoha, accused him of stealing the mailbox in 2013 amid a family dispute over money.
The case against Puana was eventually dropped. His attorney Alexander Silvert says others were involved.
“It’s telling the rest of the conspirators in this case that we have this evidence,” Silvert said. “We already have one individual that we have come forward, and that this is serious, and this is going to happen.”
Attorney Myles Breiner said on Friday that court documents do not implicate Police Chief Louis Kealoha in any improper conduct.
“As far as the chief is concerned,” Breiner added, “there is nothing in this document, nothing regarding Mr. Silva, that implicates the chief in any improper conduct, so there is no reason for the chief to resign or step down whatsoever. Apparently the focus of his investigation has at least temporarily moved toward or pivoted toward Katherine Kealoha and away from her husband, the chief of police.”
Puana is suing five police officers and the Kealohas, who filed a lawsuit against the city’s Ethics Commission and two of its former employees over investigations the couple called illegal.
The Kealohas say the investigations led to a federal corruption probe.
