The attorney for a former Honolulu police officer recently disclosed significant new details of the case she says triggered retaliation against him by the former Honolulu police chief and his wife, then a high-ranking prosecutor.

Megan Kau is representing former HPD Sgt. Albert Lee, who is facing charges of driving under the influence and making a false police report.

The charges stem from a traffic accident on November 17, 2016 when Lee’s silver 2011 Chevrolet Equinox went off the road around 3:30 a.m. and slammed into a Hawaiian Electric building in Hawaii Kai. Lee was found in the passenger seat, and responding officers reported he appeared intoxicated. Lee said he had been asleep and would not or could not identify who had been driving the vehicle.

That same afternoon, Lee testified before a federal grand jury in the continuing investigating of former high ranking city prosecutor, Katherine Kealoha, and her husband, former Police Chief Louis Kealoha.

Kau said in court filings that the charges against Lee were pursued by the prosecutor’s career criminal division, instead of by the separate division that typically handles such misdemeanor traffic incidents.

Kau believes the escalation of the case to the career criminal division, headed by Katherine Kealoha until she went on leave without pay in October 2017, was in retaliation for Lee’s involvement in the arrest of Honolulu businessman Michael Miske.

In court filings, Kau provided details of attempts by Katherine Kealoha and several other staff in the prosecutor’s office to pressure Lee to drop an investigation of Miske.

On Thursday afternoon, November 12, 2015, HPD officer Jared Spiker was on the 900 block of Queen Street near downtown Honolulu as part of a federally-funded crackdown on driving while using a cell phone or other mobile device. At about 3:35 p.m. Spiker saw a driver on the phone and flagged him down.

According to a subsequent police report, Spiker recognized the driver as Michael Miske “based on prior contacts.” Spiker instructed Miske to park his car, but instead Miske drove away before being cited.

Spiker then drove to the nearby offices of Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control, one of several companies operating at 940 Queen Street that were controlled by or associated with Miske.

The manager telephoned Miske, “who denied he was driving the vehicle stopped by Officer Spiker.”

A couple of hours later, Spiker received a call from Miske at his private phone number, which he does not share. It is not known how Miske obtained the number.

In the call, Miske offered to meet and “work it out.” Later, he called back and said he would be accompanied by his attorney, and agreed to call the next day to schedule the meeting.

At the time of this incident, Miske was awaiting trial on felony charges stemming for an alleged assault against a rival promoter several years previously. Miske has a criminal record going back to 1993, and has allegedly been involved in several assaults, some which have led to criminal charges and others to civil lawsuits and confidential settlements.

When Spiker didn’t hear back from Miske, he informed Sgt. Lee of the situation.

Two days later, after still not hearing from Miske, Spiker and Lee went looking for him at the M Nightclub just before its 4 a.m. closing time. Miske was a part-owner and operator of the club in Restaurant Row.

“Even though the doorman confirmed that Mr. Miske was in his office, Mr. Miske could not be found,” Lee said in a sworn declaration filed in court.

Shortly afterwards, about 4:30 a.m., Miske again telephone Officer Spiker “and threatened that he could go to the ’top of the food chain.’”

It isn’t clear what the “top of the food chain” referred to, whether the top in the prosecutor’s office, the police department, or the city administration.

“However,” Kau alleged in a court filing, “several days after that call, Mrs. Kealoha (the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office Career Criminal Division Chief at the time and the wife of then HPD Chief Kealoha) instructed Officer Spiker to leave Mr. Miske alone, claiming he was assisting the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office in another case.”

Lee said he was suspicious of Kealoha’s direct involvement “given the fact that Officer Spiker had only two years in the department, and—assuming Mr. Miske was in face working as a cooperating witness—the proper channel of communication for Mrs. Kealoha would have been to communicate directly to and through the officer’s command.”

As a result, Lee says he decided to continue to investigate the situation, and also alerted other officers “that Mr. Miske was arrestable for failing to obey a police officer’s command.”

Several days after Kealoha’s phone call to Spiker, the officer received a telephone call from another employee in the prosecutor’s office. Roger Lau, a special assistant to Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro, again demanded Mr. Miske be left alone.”

In addition to his “special assistant” position, Lau is also co-chair of Kaneshiro’s campaign committee, according to the organizational report on file with the Campaign Spending Commission.

The Miske case isn’t the only time Roger Lau’s behavior has come under scrutiny. A female employee of the prosecutor’s office has alleged that her refusal to disclose details of her testimony before the federal grand jury investigating the prosecutor’s office when grilled by Roger Lau led to retaliation on the job, according to reporting by Hawaii News Now.

The woman told HNN in February 2019 that she was summoned into a meeting with Lau following her appearance before the grand jury. The woman said Lau wanted to know everything about what happened in the grand jury, including all the questions she had been asked. When she was less than forthcoming, the retaliation started, she said.

On December 4, 2015, a confidential source told Sgt. Lee that Miske was at his new home at the end of Lumahai Street in Portlock.

In his sworn declaration, Lee said that after receiving permission from HPD Captain Benjamin Mahi, he “worked in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a number of federal agents to arrest Mr. Miske.”

Miske was arrested that night at about 6 p.m. “for failing to obey a police officer’s command,” and taken to the Central Receiving Division for booking.

Lee subsequently stated that when being placed under arrest, Miske falsely stated that he had already had an agreement with Officer Spiker that he would not be arrested, and further said that Lau, from the prosecutor’s office, said everything had been taken care of.

Formal charges were filed against Miske on December 24, 2015.

It isn’t publicly known why the FBI was involved in Miske’s arrest. However, for more than a year, federal agents have been investigating the disappearance of 21-year old Jonathan Fraser, who suddenly went missing on July 30, 2016.

Fraser was reportedly the best friend of Miske’s son, Caleb-Jordan Miske-Lee, according to numerous posts on Instagram and other social media. The two were involved in a serious traffic accident in November 2015 when the car they were in crashed into a truck on Kaneohe Bay Drive. Miske-Lee was found at the scene strapped into the driver’s seat, according to reports filed by first responders. He was taken from the scene in critical condition, and died from his injuries several months later.

Despite clear evidence that Miske-Lee had been at the wheel, his father maintained that Fraser had been driving, and blamed Fraser for his son’s death. The senior Miske has filed suit on behalf of his son’s estate, naming the missing Fraser and the driver of the other vehicle as those responsible.

In May 2018, the FBI took the unusual step of offering a $20,000 reward for information on Fraser’s disappearance. No further information has been made public about their investigation.

Five months after Miske’s arrest, a complaint was filed against Sgt. Lee by then-Deputy Chief Cary Okimoto, who worked directly under Chief Louis Kealoha, Katherine Kealoha’s husband.

The complaint alleged that Lee had failed to submit an overtime card for the time spent on the Miske arrest “and therefore volunteered his time when he conducted the off-duty arrest of Miske.”

That omission was apparently viewed as evidence that Lee had failed to remain impartial, a violation of HPD rules.

On February 28, 2017, Lee received a written reprimand for violating department rules by having “volunteered your time when you conducted the off-duty arrest of a male.” Lee was later terminated by HPD.

In a recent court filing, Megan Kau said there is reason to believe Deputy Chief Okimoto’s complaint was initiated by Katherine Kealoha as retaliation against Sgt. Lee.

“It is believed that Mrs. Kealoha directed Wayne Wills (who at the time was working directly for Mrs. Kealoha as an investigator for the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office) to submit a letter to HPD making a formal complaint against Sergeant Lee for allegedly acting unethically and impartially while arresting Mr. Miske,” Kau wrote in a recent court filing. “Mr. Wills’ letter was then given to Deputy Chief Okimoto, who initiated the HPD complaint against Sergeant Lee.”

Was this “the top of the food chain” that Miske spoke of? We don’t know don’t know for sure. But the appearances are unsettling at best.

Kau, Sgt. Lee’s attorney, has now subpoenaed records from the police department that she believes will support the retaliation charge.

Kau, in a court filing, said she “believes that a number of officers were reprimanded during this investigation,” and has subpoenaed the files of six other officers from HPD’s Professional Standards Office. The initial deadline for production of the records was Friday, April 12, but has been continued until May 3 at the request of city attorneys.

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