The Honolulu Police Department suspended or fired 59 officers in 61 cases that span as far back as 2016, according to the department’s annual misconduct report filed with the Legislature Monday.

The report includes officers who were fired or suspended by the department but are still involved in the grievance and arbitration process, meaning their punishments could still be reduced, as well as disciplinary actions that were finalized this year.

Criminal investigations were initiated in nearly 40% of the cases, according to HPD’s latest report, although the Honolulu Prosecutor’s Office was notified in just over a quarter of the 61 total misconduct cases.

The Honolulu Police Department gave 17 officers discharge notices in 2021, but just three of those officers lost their jobs while 14 of them are still going through the grievance and arbitration process.

Honolulu Police Department Headquarters.
The Honolulu Police Department suspended or fired a record-high number of officers last year, according to the department’s disciplinary report. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021

Since 2020, state law has required police departments to disclose the names of officers who have been either suspended or fired following the conclusion of grievance and arbitration processes and the discipline has been finalized.

The Honolulu Police Department’s latest report names 19 officers, including three who were terminated and 16 who were suspended.

Those officers include Mason Jordan, who provided a minor with alcohol and refused to participate in the administrative investigation into the incident, according to the report. Jordan resigned before he was fired and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was never notified about the incident.

Honolulu Police Misconduct Database

Justin Castro was also fired for engaging in a romantic relationship with a subordinate officer, then forcing the officer to continue the relationship or face possible termination, according to the report. Castro also resigned before he was fired and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was never notified.

The report identifies Albert Lee as the third officer to be discharged following the conclusion of the grievance and arbitration process. Lee, who had been an HPD sergeant, was fired for a 2016 car crash that damaged a Hawaiian Electric Co. substation and knocked out power to approximately 1,700 residents in Hawaii Kai.

Lee was initially charged with drunken driving, but the case was transferred to Kauai prosecutors after his attorney, Megan Kau, claimed a conflict of interest and said her client was being targeted for speaking out against his former boss Louis Kealoha, and his wife, deputy prosecutor Katherine Kealoha. Lee’s charges were later reduced to reckless driving, to which he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to pay a $500 fine and perform 60 hours of community service.

Lee’s was not the only name associated with the Kealoha scandal on HPD’s latest disciplinary report. Daniel Sellers, a police sergeant who pleaded guilty in 2019 to helping the Kealohas frame a family member for the theft of their mailbox, was also identified in the report for having been suspended for 20 days.

Kealoha case witness or defendant.
Daniel Sellers, one of several HPD officers who faced criminal charges as part of the Kealoha scandal, was suspended, according to HPD’s report. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2018

Sellers, who was initially fired before he was reinstated through arbitration, was suspended 20 days for failing to submit proper paperwork to the department, according to the report.

The longest suspension an officer faced according to the annual report was the 130-day suspension Bruce Kim was given for operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant. Kim was initially fired, but the punishment was reduced to a lengthy suspension following the grievance process.

A total of three officers faced one-day suspensions for failing to establish an inner perimeter or notify HPD’s communications division about a barricade incident. Two of those officers have been named while the third was not because a grievance is still pending in his case.

One of those officers was Christopher Fredeluces, who also was charged with attempted murder in connection with the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap, although the charge was later dismissed after a judge found prosecutors failed to prove their case against Fredeluces and two other officers.

The second officer was identified as Grant Kimura, who also was reportedly arrested for abuse in Las Vegas in 2016.

The Hawaii County Police Department also filed its annual disciplinary report to the Legislature on Monday. Its report showed 11 officers were terminated and dozens more were suspended. The Hawaii County Police Department’s disciplinary report notably contains less details about the reasons for suspensions and firings than the Honolulu Police Department’s.

Of those discharged in Hawaii County, one was fired for allegedly committing sexual assault, another was accused of robbery, and a third was discharged for theft.

Two Hawaii County officers were discharged for bringing the department into “disrepute,” but no further detail was given.

All 11 of the officers discharged by the Hawaii County Police Department still have pending grievances, according to the report.

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