Ex-Hawaii prosecutor’s brother found guilty of dealing drugs

HONOLULU (AP) — The ache doctor brother of a former Hawaii prosecutor imprisoned in a corruption case that additionally took down her former police chief husband was discovered responsible Wednesday of prescribing oxycodone to his pals in order that they may promote the capsules for money.

After a three-week trial, a jury discovered Dr. Rudolph Puana, 50, responsible of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and fentanyl and distribution of oxycodone and fentanyl exterior the course {of professional} follow and with out a reputable medical function, U.S. prosecutors mentioned.

Among the cash funded cocaine events with the Large Island physician, and a few of it was used to pay tuition for his pals’ kids at one the most costly non-public faculties in Hawaii, prosecutors mentioned.

“We’re, in fact, dissatisfied with the decision,” Puana’s lawyer, F. Clinton Broden, mentioned in an e-mail. “Any dialogue of an enchantment could be untimely at this level.”

Puana’s sister, Katherine Kealoha, pleaded responsible in 2019 to utilizing her place as a deputy prosecutor to guard him from a drug-dealing investigation. She entered the plea after a jury discovered her and her now-estranged husband responsible of conspiracy in a separate case alleging they plotted to border a relative to maintain him from revealing the fraud that financed their lavish way of life.

She is serving a 13-year jail sentence and her husband, Louis Kealoha, is serving a seven-year sentence.

A choose ordered Puana into custody instantly after the decision. Jurors deliberated for lower than a day.