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Not only did Katherine Kealoha pay for his airfare from Hilo and hotel stays in Honolulu for their trysts, Hawaii County firefighter Jesse Michael Ebersole told a federal judge Thursday that Kealoha also made some of his car payments. Read more

Not only did Katherine Kealoha pay for his airfare from Hilo and hotel stays in Honolulu for their trysts, Hawaii County firefighter Jesse Michael Ebersole told a federal judge Thursday that Kealoha also made some of his car payments.

Ebersole, 49, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring with Kealoha to lie about their affair to the federal grand jury that was investigating Kealoha and her husband, retired Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha. Ebersole told U.S. District Chief Judge J. Michael Seabright that at Kealoha’s direction he told the grand jury that he and Kealoha were just friends even though they had had an intimate relationship.

In addition to pleading guilty, Ebersole has agreed to cooperate with the on­going investigation and prosecution of Kealoha. He faces a maximum five-year prison term at sentencing in April. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Beste said the government will make a sentencing recommendation based on Ebersole’s level of cooperation.

A federal grand jury started investigating the Kealohas in 2015 and returned an indictment in October accusing them and four former members of the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit of framing a Kealoha relative with stealing the Kealohas’ mailbox, then lying about it to investigators. The indictment also accuses the Kea­lohas of lying on loan applications and Katherine Kealoha of stealing money from her grandmother, her uncle and the trust funds of two minors.

The Kealohas are scheduled to stand trial in November on bank fraud charges. They and the other defendants are scheduled to stand trial on the rest of the charges in March.

The Kealohas have had to answer to the charges three times because a subsequent grand jury twice amended the original indictment. After each arraignment Louis Kealoha said that he and his wife pleaded not guilty because they are not guilty.

“I really have to think that Chief Kealoha, if there is ever a moment in a case where you have the opportunity to come forward and work with the government and make the best deal possible, this is that moment in the case. And if he misses that moment, I don’t think there’s going to be another chance,” said Federal Public Defender First Assistant Alexander Silvert.

Silvert defended Katherine Kealoha’s uncle against the mailbox theft charge and referred the case to the FBI in 2014 after the charge was dismissed.

The court-appointed criminal defense lawyers for the Kealohas were in court Thursday for Ebersole’s guilty plea. They declined requests for comment.

Beste told Seabright that Ebersole and Katherine Kealoha met in 2009 when they participated in the Pacific Century Fellows leadership program. He said Kealoha started providing Ebersole with gifts, including airfare, hotel stays and a check as a bonus for a job. The cashier’s check was for $1,387. Beste didn’t say what job Ebersole did.

He said some of the more than $20,000 Kealoha spent on Ebersole was money she stole from her grandmother and money from a second mortgage she and her husband secured on their Kahala home by lying on their loan application.

Beste said investigators were interested in Ebersole because his name appeared on some of Kealoha’s credit card charges and they had records of phone con­versations between the two.

Ebersole said he has worked for the Hawaii Fire Department since 1992. He is the department’s battalion chief of the Emergency Medical Services Bureau. He is on paid leave but told Seabright that he hopes to get back to work.