Mistrust taints HPD unit

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Honolulu Police Department's elite Criminal Intelligence Unit was purposely excluded from an investigation of organized crime activities in Chinatown because some of its detectives were seen as being too close to targets of the probe, according to recently unsealed court records.

DONOHUE

That surveillance captured on videotape a meeting by five CIU officers at a bar with one of the main targets of the Ikapono case, according to testimony from officer Gerrit Kurihara, who was part of the video surveillance team.

Attorneys representing the city have tried for nine months to keep the Kurihara testimony secret, arguing that its disclosure could put officers in danger and jeopardize ongoing investigations.

Instead, what the Kurihara deposition reveals are situations that are simply embarrassing to the department, from the practice by some detectives of driving around to use up overtime, to the widespread feeling in the department that some CIU detectives had become too close to the organized crime figures they were supposed to be investigating.

Kurihara's deposition was one of hundreds of records that are part of a lawsuit filed in federal court against the Police Department, Chief Lee Donohue and former CIU commander Capt. Milton Olmos by former CIU Detective Kenneth Kamakana, who claimed he was unjustly transferred after expressing concerns about how the unit was conducting investigations. Most of the records were sealed and not available to the public.

The Advertiser went to court in November 2002 to unseal the records, arguing that the public had a right to the information contained in them. After repeated court rulings to unseal many of the records, city attorneys last month released thousands of pages but blacked out substantial portions of the records they did release. Almost all of Kurihara's 55-page deposition was blacked out.

Attorneys for The Advertiser challenged the editing of the records, and some of the missing material, including large portions of Kurihara's deposition, was released last week. Further court proceedings are scheduled next week on other blacked- out records being challenged by The Advertiser.

Central to the Ikapono case was police officer Earl Koanui, who pretended to be a corrupt officer collecting money from people running gambling games in return for promises of protection from police raids.

AIO

CROUCH

"Did Earl ever indicate to you that because of the CIU officers' relationships with some of the targets, he had concerns for his safety?" Kurihara was asked by Mark Bennett, the original attorney for Kamakana in the lawsuit. Bennett stopped representing Kamakana when he was appointed state attorney general last year.

"Oh yes, sir," Kurihara said.

Various police officers and federal agents testified in the case that CIU officer Alexander "Charley Boy" Ahlo was close to organized crime figure Gabriel Aio, who was involved in protecting several illegal gambling operations in Chinatown.

Ahlo testified that he met regularly, usually in bars, with Aio, but only to gather information about criminal activities.

But Kurihara said the relationship was a concern to the Ikapono investigators.

"There were some CIU officers who we felt we could not trust in the sense that we didn't know exactly where they stood in relationship to ... certain people that may be targets as far as Ikapono is concerned," Kurihara said.

"In general it was decided early on that we will not inform CIU and we requested our command not to inform CIU of what Ikapono was designed to do," Kurihara testified.

Donohue said through a representative that he and other department employees could not answer questions on matters related to the Kamakana lawsuit because it is still pending in federal court. On Friday, he released this statement:

"From the very beginning of this case I knew that neither Capt. Olmos nor I had committed any wrongdoing. So it comes as no surprise that even after months of intensive investigation and scrutiny, no wrongdoing has been found. While it concerns me that the partial release of information will not give an accurate picture of the circumstances of this case, many of the documents could not be released fully because of safety issues."

Officers videotaped

During the Ikapono investigation, team members set up hidden surveillance sites to videotape payoffs made to Koanui by Aio and another target of the investigation, Steve Crouch. Just before one payment, scheduled for the evening of May 3, 2000, at Hokulani's, a bar-restaurant operated by Crouch and Aio on North Beretania Street, a car carrying five CIU officers arrived at the scene, Kurihara said.

The car was driven by CIU officer Lee Donohue Jr., son of the police chief, according to court records. Donohue has since been promoted and transferred out of the unit.

One or two of the officers "embraced" Crouch, who was standing on the sidewalk outside Hokulani's, and there were "handshakes, back-slapping kind of thing, and he (Crouch) shook hands with the others" before all the men went into the bar, Kurihara said. The officers stayed inside for a half hour and then left, Kurihara said.

One of the CIU officers told Kurihara the next day the meeting was one of several visits to "various places" the five officers had made the previous evening because they were "using up excess overtime," Kurihara said.

Asked what "excess overtime" meant, Kurihara said: "If you don't use what (overtime) you're allocated this year, then next year you get less."

Kurihara said that when the five officers arrived at Hokulani's, he had to call Koanui, posing as the corrupt police officer, to tell him to delay his arrival. After the five left, Koanui arrived and picked up his "protection" money while being videotaped by nearby Ikapono agents, according to Kurihara.

One of the interested onlookers was Capt. Kevin Lima, newly appointed executive officer of the narcotics-vice division, who had been invited by Kurihara to observe Ikapono operations that evening.

Bennett asked if Lima was surprised by the appearance of the CIU officers at Hokulani's.

"I believe so, sir," Kurihara said.

Under questioning from city attorneys, Kurihara said the Ikapono investigation was never compromised and was successfully completed. Crouch and Aio pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges. Aio was sentenced to six months in federal prison and three years' supervised release. Crouch is awaiting sentencing. Numerous other defendants were also charged and convicted in the case.

Let in on a secret

Other unsealed documents reveal that CIU officers heard repeatedly from their informants that Koanui was taking payoff money and some officers suspected that he was part of an undercover investigation.

One officer, Tenari Ma'afala, now head of the police officers' union, was let in on the secret by Koanui and an official in the narcotics-vice division, Ma'afala testified. Ma'afala was ordered not to tell anyone in CIU, he said.

After Crouch and Aio were indicted by a federal grand jury, they claimed that they had been working with CIU Detective Ahlo in "conducting an investigation on behalf of HPD of Det. Kaonuhi (sic) being corrupt," according to a previously sealed FBI document.

"Crouch advised that he and Gabe Aio had either photocopied or hand-written every serial number for every bill that was given by them" to Koanui, FBI Special Agent Daniel Kelly wrote in the report.

"Crouch noted that he was working for HPD Detective Ahlo during this investigation," Kelly wrote.

But Ahlo told Kelly that he had spoken with Crouch about a shooting incident in Chinatown but that "he never utilized Crouch or anyone else in investigating whether or not Detective Kaonuhi (sic) was corrupt," Kelly's report said.

Ahlo told Kelly "that some individuals, such as Gabe Aio, had told Ahlo that Detective Kaonuhi (sic) was collecting payoffs," Kelly's report said.

Ahlo said "he provided this information to his superiors within HPD, however he was never told by his superiors to investigate this matter," Kelly reported.

Questionable relationship

Ahlo was involved in a bizarre incident in 1999 that led some in law enforcement to question the extent of his relationship with Aio, according to documents filed in the Kamakana lawsuit.

He brought Gabe Aio, an identified member of Hawai'i organized crime who was then under investigation in the Ikapono case, to the hospitality suite of a statewide meeting of criminal intelligence investigators at the Hawaiian Regent Hotel in Waikiki.

Ahlo also brought his half-brother, Henderson "Henny Boy" Ahlo Jr., a convicted organized crime hit man, to the suite.

Some officers present in the suite, including an HPD officer involved in an undercover investigation, ran out of the room when Ahlo and his guests arrived, according to various depositions in the Kamakana lawsuit.

Ahlo later said that he brought Aio to the suite because a Maui investigator had asked to meet Aio, but that Maui officer denied Ahlo's claim.

Ahlo also included Aio and Henderson Ahlo in a golf tournament staged as part of the annual criminal intelligence conference.

Ahlo later apologized to his colleagues for what he admitted was "bad judgment" in bringing Aio to the meeting and golf tournament, according to court records.

Kamakana, a decorated 29-year police veteran who has worked closely with the FBI on various organized crime narcotics trafficking investigations, sued the department in November 2000, alleging that he was improperly transferred out of CIU and investigated criminally and civilly by the department's internal affairs division for reporting evidence of CIU wrongdoing to the FBI.

The department claims that Kamakana was transferred because he was a disruptive element in the CIU and because he violated regulations when he removed CIU files and tape recordings and gave them to the FBI.

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial later this month in federal court but may be settled before then.

Reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Dangerous or just embarrassing?

Below is a page from the deposition of police officer Gerrit Kurihara. On the left is the page blacked out at the request of the city, and on the right is the same page after The Advertiser challenged the blacking out of large portions of his testimony. While the city has said the information in the deposition and other court records could put officers in danger if it is released, most of the records simply describe situations that cast officers in an unflattering light.