Louis Looks Back - The Rise and Fall of Honolulu’s Top Cop

Louis Looks Back
The Rise and Fall of Honolulu’s Top Cop
by Mary Zanakis

As the curious case of a stolen mailbox grew into the biggest cor-ruption scandal in Hawaii’s histo-ry, the story of police chief Louis Kealoha and his high-ranking city prosecutor wife Katherine, riveted the Islands with its revelations of fraud and abuse of power. Now serving time in federal prison, Louis Kealoha speaks publicly for the first time to journalist Mary Zanakis about his once-promising career and his fall from grace.

Zanakis acknowledges that while this tale of deceit and deception at the highest levels of law enforce-ment is Louis’s side of the story, it is no defense, nor does the former cop benefit financially from the book’s sales. “My only expecta-tion was that he tell the truth”, she says. “I told him that people would know – that they can sense when someone is lying. I also told him that if he wasn’t able to dig down deep and lay it all on the table, he shouldn’t do the interviews”.

Mary Zanakis, a news reporter in Hawaii for nearly thirty years, grew up in Kailua, Oahu, where she attended public schools. As a reporter at KHON-TV and KITV, she covered federal and state courts, the police and health news. In 1983, she debuted and anchored the Channel 2 Morning News along with Courtney Harrington. Zanakis’ unique relationship with the Kealoha family – Katherine Kealoha is her first cousin once removed – allowed her to delve deep into their personal lives for an intimate look at the events with an insider’s perspective.