Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro is refusing to discuss an ongoing federal corruption probe that has expanded to include staff in his office and possibly Kaneshiro himself.

Hawaii News Now first reported Tuesday night that Chief Deputy Chasid Sapolu had received a “subject” letter from the U.S. Justice Department notifying him his actions were being investigated.

Since then, several people close to the investigation have told Civil Beat that multiple letters were sent to attorneys in the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office.

Kaneshiro, who was re-elected to the county attorney job in 2016, has not returned phone calls seeking comment on the investigation. A reporter went to his office Friday, but a spokesman would not come out and discuss the matter. Later, the spokesman, Brooks Baehr, texted to say the office would not comment on “investigations any grand jury may or may not be conducting.”

However, Baehr did not deny that federal letters have been received.

Sapolu also did not return messages left at his office, seeking comment.

Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney's Office

The Justice Department has been investigating corruption and abuse of power in Honolulu law enforcement agencies since December 2014, and the prosecutor’s office has long had a central role in the investigation. A federal grand jury in October 2017 indicted former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha, his former deputy prosecutor wife Katherine, and four HPD officers on a number of charges. The first of those trials is scheduled to begin March 19. A fifth police officer has already pleaded guilty in the case.

Federal prosecutors Michael Wheat and Eric Beste, the team that will try the Kealohas, declined to comment on any developments with the ongoing probe.

Sapolu began working for the prosecuting attorney’s office in 2011, beginning in the misdemeanor traffic division. He was named first deputy by Kaneshiro in November 2017.

The promotion followed his work in the career criminal unit, where Katherine Kealoha also had worked.

Sapolu was involved in some of the office’s highest profile cases, including the prosecution of federal agent Christopher Deedy for the Waikiki shooting death of Kollin Elderts during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in 2011.

Sapolu has been called to testify before the federal grand jury investigating law enforcement misdeeds a number of times.

The Honolulu Police Department was much more transparent in its handling of the federal investigation than the prosecutor’s office has been.

Two years ago, then-Chief Kealoha placed himself on restricted duty after receiving a target letter from federal investigators. He did so after notifying the Honolulu Police Commission, the board that oversees the actions of the police department. Less than a year later, he was indicted with his wife.

Commission chair Loretta Sheehan said Friday she believes the prosecutor’s office should be up front with the public about what, if anything, is going on. Sheehan is a former prosecutor who worked for both the city and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“The Honolulu Police Commission as a supervisor of Chief Kealoha required him to disclose the receipt of his target letter,” she said. “Responsible supervision of a public office requires nothing less.”

The Prosecutor’s Office In The Middle

Katherine Kealoha, who along with her husband were indicted for allegedly framing her uncle, stealing from a guardianship account belonging to minors and her grandmother and committing bank fraud and identity theft, resigned from her job with the prosecuting attorney’s office in September. Other alleged co-conspirators in the frame job case are four Honolulu police officers, Daniel Sellers, Minh Hung “Bobby” Nguyen, Derek Hahn and Gordon Shiraishi. Louis Kealoha is also named as a co-defendant in the financial fraud charges. But federal investigators, led by Wheat, have continued to uncover potential wrongdoing, much of it within the prosecutor’s office.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat