Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine Kealoha, took to the television Wednesday to proclaim their innocence in a wide-ranging federal grand jury investigation that involves allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

In an with KHON鈥檚 Gina Mangieri, the chief and his wife, a high-ranking city prosecutor, said they鈥檙e certain聽that investigators won鈥檛 find any wrongdoing in a strange, convoluted case that stems from the theft, in 2013, of their mailbox.

I would be surprised if anything came out,鈥 Louis Kealoha said. 鈥淚 am absolutely confident that these allegations, that they鈥檙e going to be unfounded.

Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha dodged interviews ever since the FBI began investigating him for possible abuse of power. He recently spoke out.
Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha dodged interviews ever since the FBI began investigating him for possible abuse of power. He recently spoke out to KHON. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016

This is the first time the chief and his wife have appeared together to publicly address the federal investigation as well as a related city ethics probe,聽launched last year, that they attempted to halt through an anonymous lawsuit. The status of that probe is unclear.

Civil Beat has been asking to speak with the Kealohas for more than a year to discuss these issues, as have other media outlets. The chief also has denied numerous requests for interviews about other topics, despite earlier assurances that he would be more transparent.

Mangieri鈥檚 interview 鈥 which you can 鈥 appears to have taken place in the Kealoha鈥檚 home, with both the chief and his wife dressed casually in aloha attire.

The Kealohas were defiant in their answers to Mangieri鈥檚 questions. In one of the most interesting exchanges in the interview, they also made vague references to a conspiracy against them.

Here鈥檚 that part of the transcript:

Louis Kealoha: I think what this is all about is, you have people with their own professional and personal agendas to achieve their own goals. This is something everyone wants to hang their hat on to promote themselves, so it is frustrating. It is disappointing, in a way, to see how this is unfolding.

Katherine Kealoha: There are a lot of cases that I鈥檝e been currently working on that a lot of people are very upset about, and I鈥檓 talking about a lot of people that are in substantial positions of power within the county.

Gina Mangieri: It seems so unfathomable that so many agencies and individuals would realistically gang up on two people.

LK: I think people want to believe so much that the police chief is corrupt, that the prosecutor is corrupt, that they鈥檙e willing to do anything, including lie, to make it true.

The KHON piece didn鈥檛 probe any deeper on the Kealohas’ statements that they鈥檙e being unfairly targeted by politically influential people. But Mangieri did promise that there was more to come in a follow-up piece.

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