Kealoha off to
Kailua detention facility

He'll be there until Feb. 1, and sees
this as 'a way to help others'

By Linda Hosek
Star-Bulletin

Eighteen-year-old Gabriel Kealoha played Hawaiian music with his father, grabbed some schoolwork and hugged the people in his Nuuanu home one last time.

In his attorney's car, he rode over the Koolau mountains yesterday to a Kailua juvenile detention facility to serve the maximum time for the Oct. 27 death of Sgt. Arthur Miller, a legally drunk off-duty police officer.

"He is holding his young head up high and going through this chapter of his life with dignity," said Hayden Aluli, his attorney. "He still hopes to graduate with his high school class and would like to start college as planned."

Family Court Judge Darryl Choy sentenced Kealoha, a Kamehameha Schools honor student, to detention until he turns 19 on Feb. 1 and probation until age 20, sources said.

After a weeklong trial closed to the public, Choy ruled that Kealoha committed manslaughter by recklessly causing Miller's death.

Miller fell 33 feet to his death from an H-1 freeway viaduct near Honolulu Airport after the two stopped in a traffic scuffle. A 19-year department veteran, Miller had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16, twice the legal limit.

Aluli, who declined to discuss the verdict or the sentence, said he would appeal all aspects of the case.

City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said he could not comment because state laws require juvenile proceedings to remain confidential. But he said the Kealoha case was an example of why the law should be changed to allow public access.

Carlisle prosecuted the case and had wanted Kealoha tried as an adult. If he had been convicted as an adult, Kealoha would have faced a 20-year prison term.

Elisa Yadao, Kamehameha Schools communications director, said she couldn't discuss whether Kealoha could graduate with his class on May 25. "We're going to do what's in the best interest of all our students and keep within our mission," she said.

Kealoha supporters who waited outside Family Court while he was sentenced said he should have been acquitted because he was defending himself during the scuffle.

They also said because Miller was drunk and had a record of violence, it heightened Kealoha's claim of self-defense. That record includes a temporary restraining order obtained by his former wife.

Dr. Bruno West, a dentist, said Miller had beaten and traumatized his son, Kinder, in 1989. He also said that a police investigation of the incident led to a "generic apology" to his son.

But he said the beating's brutality devastated his son, leading to a suicide attempt about two weeks after the incident.

West also said Miller tried to intimidate him into not filing a harassment complaint by stalking his Kahala home and shining a light into it at night.

"It's such a blow to see another good young life irreversibly changed by a man who shouldn't have been on the force," said West, who testified on behalf of Kealoha.

West and Sue Larkin, a family friend, described Kealoha as a decent, remarkable boy from a strong family.

Larkin, a casting director for Reel Services/Hawaii Inc., described the hour that Kealoha was allowed to spend with his family yesterday as "a real blessing."

Larkin also said Kealoha, an only child, was concerned about his mother during his absence: "He cried with me last night and said, 'Please take care of my mom.'"

She also said Kealoha recently was cast in a video about Hawaiian legends in which he would have played a lead role.

She said Kealoha hopes to be a role model while in detention center: "He sees this as an opportunity, as a way to help others."

West said Kealoha talked to him about the incident, saying every night he remembers the sight of Miller's feet going over the railing.

"His penance and cross to bear is going to be his vision," he said. "If he was just defending himself, you don't want to crucify him further by putting him in detention."