Honolulu, Hawaii – “Alright Ms. Akana, you will rise for the reading of the jury’s verdict at this time.”  With those words, following a three-day trial last week, a jury found 2026 (and 2022) gubernatorial candidate, financial grifter, and rabid statehood denier Kelei Taylor a.k.a. “Kelei Akana” guilty in the 1st degree of the Class C felony of assaulting police officers and guilty of driving without a driver’s license in a traffic stop in Ewa Beach that was deliberately escalated by Taylor into an altercation back on May 5th of this year when she violently resisted arrest while claiming to be a “repatriated citizen” of the nonexistent Hawaiian kingdom – a ‘kingdom’ where she imagines anyone without a license can drive a car with expired tags anywhere they like on kingdom roads and then abuse police officers with the complete blessing of the monarchy.

As a convicted felon whose comical ‘Hawaiian sovereignty defense’ went nowhere, the self-described “Queen of Hawaii” Kelei Taylor now awaits sentencing in February when she could possibly receive the maximum penalty of five years in prison plus a fine of up to $10,000.  In addition, she owes the State of Hawaii money for an earlier cancelled jury trial back in August after some of her antics in court didn’t pay off, not to mention restitution to the officer whose arm she bit (seen above in an HPD bodycam video) while she was punching and kicking officers trying to remove the uncooperative Taylor from her husband’s Mercedes with the expired tags.  In addition to the cost of medical treatment, the bitten officer had to be tested for HIV and Hepatitis.  [Ms. Taylor is fortunate that the woke DEI prosecutor opted to drop the original third criminal charge, which was for resisting arrest.]

Ms. Taylor goes by the alias of “Mrs. Kelei Akana”, alleging that the man who stood by her throughout this legal ordeal is her husband, perennial Hawaii GOP congressional candidate Joe Akana, whose character and judgement the Republican Party repeatedly assured everyone could be trusted.  To be sure, top GOP leaders and candidates and elected officials never warned voters that Mr. Akana was harboring dual hatreds for the United States and for law enforcement.  But HIRA News has uncovered shocking truths about both Akana’s.  For now, know that Mr. Akana is deeply involved in Ms. Taylor’s many problems, including this criminal conviction.  But, more about all of that later.

So what REALLY happened that day?  The story of that day (and leading up to that fateful day) is quite simple.  The Akana’s had been evicted from a rental home in Ewa Beach for nonpayment of rent.  While they crashed at his elderly parents’ Maaloa Street home in Nanakuli, Joe’s parents reportedly evicted an allegedly ungrateful Kelei from their house after she called them “pedophiles” (a term which, like her other favorite epithet “traffickers”, Ms. Taylor calls anyone she doesn’t like, despite their having zero involvement in pedophilia or trafficking).  Reportedly, Joe Akana was recovering from surgery after Kelei had attacked and injured him during a fight while they were actually in a car driving down the road, possibly even this same Mercedes.  After being kicked out of his parents’ Nanakuli house, Ms. Taylor took Joe’s Mercedes and drove to Pu‘uloa Beach Park in Ewa Beach (a.k.a. “Hau Bush”) where she was basically staying the night and living in the car (though she later pretended she was there at this infamous city park to ‘minister’ to victims of trafficking).

The police and prosecution say that Ms. Taylor was sitting behind the wheel in the driver’s seat of a Mercedes in the early morning hours at Hau Bush in Ewa Beach.  Police officers on patrol encountered the expired tags on Joe’s car and an unidentified woman sitting in the car (who did not match the gender of the owner).  The police radioed and found that the registration and safety stickers for that Mercedes were EXPIRED.  Police intervention was guaranteed at this point.

From HPD’s first interaction with her, she was uncooperative; demanding names and badge numbers.  When asked why the car’s vehicle tags were expired, Akana replied, “We going through hard times right now.”  Police reportedly asked Taylor multiple times for her driver’s license to which she refused (“No!”); instead handing officers a pamphlet claiming that her name was on it, while demanding to see the USA’s “treaty of annexation” for Hawaii.  Police again requested she provide her driver’s license or identification card as the name shown on the pamphlet (“Kelei Akana”) was not coming up in their checks as someone with a valid license.  According to the City Prosecutor’s office, Akana continued refusing and argued with officers for several minutes, accusing the officers as having participated in human trafficking and for being pedophiles, while also insisting the officers had “no authority” over her and that the police “are a cabal deep state operation” and that she does not need provide identification to the police because she is “not a citizen”.

Akana also proceeded to deny that officers had any right to stop her as she was “traveling”.  Yes, traveling.  In case you weren’t aware, these ‘sovereign citizen’ nutjobs across the country attempt to differentiate between “driving” and “traveling” in a lame tinfoil hat attempt to circumvent traffic laws. They claim that “driving” refers to commercial activity, while “traveling” is a right provided by the U.S. Constitution. In the grand delusion shared by Mrs. Akana with her crazy compatriots, this distinction without a difference allows them to argue they don’t need licenses, registrations, or insurance when “traveling” in their personal vehicles, since it’s obviously not the same thing as “driving”.  Yeah, right.

One of the fake ‘sovereign citizen’ kingdom plates used by many of Kelei Akana’s compatriots in Hawaii’s statehood denier movement of anti-USA extremists

Anyway, each refusal to comply, each refusal to answer questions, each refusal to provide identification, and then blowing them off for 17 long minutes while they ordered and tried to convince her to exit the vehicle was met with more of Ms. Taylor’s sovereignty nonsense and increasing hostility.  It’s as if she was daring them to do something.  And clearly she was daring them.  Why provoke an incident?  You’ll understand the likely motive shortly.

With the Taser’s barbed, dart-shaped projectiles still attached to Kelei Taylor, and with wires stretching to the Taser gun, Taylor tearfully yet reluctantly surrenders after the needless yet very deliberate standoff with HPD.

Officers then offered “Kelei Akana” a choice:  (1) To provide her license and be cited for the expired safety and registration and exit the undriveable vehicle as it would have to be towed away –or– (2) She would be arrested for driving without a license and for obstruction.  Not happy with either option presented by police (or sensing an opportunity to go viral), Ms. Taylor a.k.a. “Mrs. Akana” reportedly escalated her argumentativeness, started the vehicle and attempted to roll up her window.  Officers instructed her to exit the vehicle and proceeded to prevent her from rolling up the window.  That’s when, prosecutors say, Joe Akana’s wife became combative; ultimately striking one officer when he attempted to reach into the vehicle and secure her hands.  Ms. Taylor was ordered multiple times without success to stop resisting.  Another officer went around to the passenger side of the vehicle and entered to assist the first officer who was being repeatedly struck and kicked by Joe Akana’s ‘wife’, who then grabbed the first officer’s right forearm arm and bit him for 5-10 painful seconds, refusing to let go.  WIth Akana continuing to resist by punching and kicking officers working from both front doors of the Mercedes, they needed to increase the level of force used to detain her, with one officer using strikes to her face and head area; ultimately using a Taser more than once to subdue her.  The zaps from the Taser made it possible to grab her arms and finally handcuff the self-employed mother/consultant/minister/politician/grifter.

Excerpt from police report for Kelei Taylor’s arrest on 05 May 2025.

Following her arrest in Ewa Beach, Kelei Taylor was transported to nearby Queen’s hospital where she could begin faking injuries and justifying the need to utilize a sympathy-inducing wheelchair. The jury was a lot less impressed than Taylor’s social media influencer comrades.

Unspoken in the trial was the video on social media of anti-statehood sovereignty activist Regina “Nani” Peterson which went viral just days before Kelei Taylor’s incident.  The English-speaking Peterson regularly drives around Oahu without a license and uses fake “Hawaiian Kingdom” license plates and a fake ‘kingdom’ driver’s license; making a political statement rather than paying for vehicle registration fees, safety inspections and auto insurance like the rest of us.  In the viral video, the police encounter a highly uncooperative “repatriated citizen” of the kingdom who repeatedly refuses to cooperate because Hawaii is a “fake state”, leading her to taunt them by pretending to only speak Hawaiian and ignore their orders.  Ultimately, police smash Peterson’s window in order to open her door so they can rightfully arrest her.  This viral video appears to be the source of Kelei Taylor’s inspiration for how she stupidly reacted in Ewa Beach.  With Taylor already upset at being kicked out of her “husband’s” parents’ home the night before, why not try to ‘go viral’ like statehood denier and anti-USA role model Regina “Nani” Peterson and become a heroine to the Hawaiian sovereignty community?

Statehood denier and Kelei Taylor role model Regina “Nani” Peterson showing off her fake ‘kingdom’ license plates, fake driver’s license and fake ID card

Or, why not?  For those who actually saw the mountain of evidence against Taylor (which included multiple body camera videos), the guilty verdict was not at all surprising.  Jurors could be seen rolling their eyes at the nutty defenses both Akana’s tried to give in court, while Judge Kevin Souza worked evenhandedly to rein in Joe and Kelei’s many sad and apparently perjurious attempts at jury nullification.  It’s no wonder that a verdict was reached in just 30 minutes.  As they say these days, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

But, prior to trial, the Akana’s and their severely misguided social media ‘influencer’ allies did everything they could since the May 5th incident to portray Kelei Taylor’s self-inflicted fate as “attempted murder” and “attempted assassination” by the Honolulu Police Department.  Their dramatic fantasy retelling of the Ewa Beach ‘police attack’ story at the Honolulu City Council elicited a profuse apology from braindead, pandering Councilwoman Andria Tupola who recently divorced her husband, widely known to be an HPD officer (though Tupola’s husband’s cover at HPD was publicly blown by Taylor’s friend Shelby “Pikachu” Brown).  [Will Tupola now apologize to the police officers and to the community for siding with her Kamehameha Class of 1998 classmate Ms. Taylor and for endorsing her B.S. story?  How about some post-verdict apologies from Taylor’s influencer allies who always omitted Ms. Taylor’s horrible behavior in their completely phony retelling of her story?]  In their crusade to turn Taylor into a celebrity, you’d even see Taylor, Joe Akana and their statehood denying influencer buddies going to meetings of the Honolulu Police Commission where they whined about the fake state’s unreasonable laws requiring cooperation during a traffic stop, rather than being able to punch, kick and bite police officers while resisting arrest in the name of the kingdom.  The Akana’s and their ilk are truly an abomination.

Kelei Taylor testifies at a meeting of the Honolulu Police Commission, with former HPD chief Joe Logan looking on.

Various GOP affiliated groups like Karl Dick’s Kleen House Hawaii, Maui Freedom TV, and others jumped on the Kelei Akana bandwagon in a desperate and reckless attempt to be relevant.  Among them, braindead influencer and fellow “statehood denier” Andrew Aker claimed that “Honolulu Police thugs brutally beat and repeatedly tased Kelei Akana“, frequently providing her an online platform for her shameless victimization nonsense.  Some loser influencer in a yellow plastic mask (calls himself “Pikachu”) wildly proclaimed online moments before the verdict was announced that “the prosecution cannot prove on the video evidence of her assaulting an officer and committing the bite which the officer complains about . . . there’s no video evidence.”  Except there was evidence galore, including video evidence.  Sadly, just like Ms. Taylor, this delusional “Pikachu” also claims that the trial was being held in the “Hawaiian Kingdom”, adding the revealing comment “Hopefully, we can find her not guilty.”  Yep, there’s definitely one born every minute.

Kelei Taylor with her post-arrest fan club comprised of Shelby Brown, Karl Dicks, Robert Santillan and Joe Akana

In the end, the 12 reasonable jurors weren’t buying what she was selling, even if she gave it away for free.  To ensure a fair outcome, the judge made it clear in his jury instructions that Hawaii courts don’t dabble in sovereign citizen, Hawaiian kingdom nonsense.  Only U.S. and State of Hawaii law applies in state court.  Tell that to Regina “Nani” Peterson and the many other delusional hooligans who play this game on a regular basis while their friends in the news media provide cover for them by NOT reporting their antics or the consequences.  Stay tuned for stories exposing recent and ongoing cases mirroring Ms. Taylor’s antics.

For HIRA News, it was truly cringe-inducing to watch Hawaii Republican Party icon Joe Akana lying down on the floor outside the courtroom on Day Two of the trial, apparently in a panic from knowing he and Kelei were being caught in lies and knowing that nobody was buying their bullshit, even after months of peddling said bullshit all over social media with the help of their disgruntled anti-USA allies.  To be sure, this is the very same Joe Akana whose character and judgement the Hawaii GOP regularly told us we could trust and who still DENIES losing the last few congressional elections he decisively lost against Jill Tokuda and Kai Kahele.  On the bright side, investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were in court to observe the Akana’s and got to see Joe and Kelei perjuring themselves.  Why would the SEC be interested in the Akana’s, you may ask?  More about that in a shocking story coming soon from HIRA News.

Kelei Taylor and the deputy prosecutor Cherise Braxton-Brooks stand while the verdict is read

Mrs. Akana, a ‘pro se’ defendant who represented herself in court, repeatedly refused to obtain a lawyer or even accept the Judge’s repeated plea for her to be represented by the public defender (which sounds funny since people who made a fortune in cryptocurrency scams and drive Mercedes cars typically retain high powered private attorneys or even notorious self-promoting lawyers like Hawaii News Now talking head Michael Green).  In front of HIRA News and the entire courtroom during pretrial hearings, the judge CLEARLY advised Taylor that she could be imprisoned and fined if things don’t go her way.  But she, like her husband Joe Akana, believes that Hawaii is a ‘fake state’.  So, to keep up appearances as a statehood denier, she had no choice but to go along with the cliche and hackneyed martyrdom act of pretending she is a ‘repatriated Hawaiian National’ (which Kelei told the judge is precisely when she added “Akana” to her name and dropped the “Taylor”).  As a result of the statehood denying cosplay, she ignored every chance of negotiating a plea deal with those devils from the corporate entity America Inc. and those fake prosecutors in the fake state court . . . even when facing a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the felony assault charge and a one year sentence to prison plus a $2,000 fine for the misdemeanor drivers license violation.

Republican politician Joe Akana being sworn in at the trial of his ‘wife’ for assaulting a police officer after being stopped for driving his car with expired tags

Weeks ago, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Akana posted a video on social media in which she said she expected to collect money from the City in a ‘settlement’ resulting from her forthcoming lawsuit concerning this ‘attempted murder’ in which “someone tried to kill me that day”, possibly from the “deep state cabal” who are ‘trying to stop Joe and Kelei from their work as ministers’ . . . or perhaps simply from HPD “targeting of native Hawaiians” in West Oahu.  Such paranoid sentiments from someone who repeatedly refused to show an ID or driver’s license and then worried why these police unsurprisingly asked for another form of identification, such as her name, her birth date and her social security number.  Paranoid?  Or maybe she’s just a world class bullshitter whose luck finally ran out when a jury of her peers voted unanimously to convict her lock, stock and barrel.

Before the judge imposes sentence on convicted felon Kelei Taylor in February 2026 (three short months from now), personnel from the Hawaii Paroling Authority (HPA) will investigate Taylor to help determine the minimum length of her imprisonment and also if she is a good candidate for probation.  Based on what they learn about Ms. Taylor and her other crimes which HIRA News will soon report on, the HPA may come to realize that the longer she spends behind bars, the safer we will all be from this violent and unpatriotic grifter . . . not to mention her ‘husband’ Joe Akana, whom the Hawaii GOP and many, many other Republicans repeatedly vouched for.  Auwe!

COMING SOON – More Stories HIRA News is working on . . .

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• Which political figures violated our trust when vouching for Joe and Kelei Akana?
• Is Akana a grifter running a fake sex trafficking advocacy group?
• Who tried to clog the courts with ‘sovereign citizen’ nonsense and ‘paper terrorism’?
• Who illegally acted like Kelei Akana’s lawyer and hasn’t been prosecuted yet?
• Does the Statehood Denier sovereignty defense work in Hawaii?
• How many lies did Kelei Taylor and Joe Akana tell under oath on the witness stand?
• Did Kelei Akana snap because the Feds are readying charges against her?
• What were Kelei Akana’s craziest defenses and defense strategies?
• Which Hawaiian Sovereignty organizations is Kelei working with?
• Who is breaking financial laws with ‘fake state’ justification and mentality?
• Who from HRP has been advising criminal defendants to use the sovereignty defense?
• Who calls state judges and leaves angry, threatening voicemail messages?
• Which prosecutor let Kelei Akana off lightly due to her woke, liberal philosophy?
• What surprising ways Kelei Akana defines and uses “trafficking”?
• Why were Kelei’s kids taken away from her? Domestic abuse cases?
• Is Kelei Akana part of a network of fake ministers chasing after money?

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Honolulu, Hawaii – HIRA News just completed an exclusive on-the-record interview with the Hawaii Republican Party’s newly-resigned state chairman Art Hannemann, who has been leading the state party organization since May 2025 and representing Hawaii Republicans at the Republican National Committee (RNC).

Party leaders and members locally and nationally should pay close attention to the revelations about why Hannemann made the difficult decision to step down and to step away from HRP.  Big problems lie ahead, now that a leadership coup planned for weeks by Art’s second in command Shirlene Ostrov has been executed in a manner which would make Augusto Pinochet and Muammar Gaddafi proud.

The shocking situation at HRP is a LOT more dire than either Art’s resignation letter or Shirlene’s subsequent ‘statement’ about Art’s resignation reveals.  With five resignations of top HRP officers since the May state convention (resignations that were kept secret from other party leaders and from party members), there’s no point in pretending that everything is just fine as we get ready for the 2026 election.

For starters, even though Art’s resignation letter yesterday was pointedly vague about the intrigue and civil war raging inside HRP, it was clear from our interview with him that the #1, #2 and #3 reasons Art Hannemann resigned is because of the backstabbing and conspiring undertaken by his vice-chair Shirlene Ostrov; someone that Art believed in enough to support being his running mate.

As a Trump supporter, Art was impressed by Ostrov being named the head of Hawaii Trump campaign and Hawaii’s delegation to the Republican National Convention.  He really believed in her and had no idea he was only being used to help Ostrov regain power.  Hannemann was also really shocked that his lifelong friend and comrade Bob McDermott joined forces with Ostrov to stab Art in the back.

Last night, in the wake of Hannemann’s resignation, Ostrov moved quickly to consolidate power by taking over Art’s top job while moving to fill other top jobs that nobody outside of Ostrov’s circle even knew had been vacated.  It seems that Ostrov had been scheming for some time to jettison Hannemann, as it recently became clear that Ostrov had only been using Hannemann to get back into the party leadership following her disgraceful exit four years ago in the wake of multiple embarrassing scandals centered around Ostrov.  [If you know, you know.  If you don’t know, stay tuned.]

Frankly, thanks to the bad taste left in the mouths of so many party members, Ostrov could never have been elected at any state convention since she was forced from the state chair job by one embarrassing revelation after another in news stories following the 2020 elections.  One of those scandals resulted in a $60,000 fine to HRP which the broke state party had to rely on the RNC to cover.  Another scandal was loony and antisemitic messaging from HRP.  More about these and dozens of other Ostrov scandals coming soon.

Art made the mistake of not vetting Ostrov before agreeing to put her on his “Team Art” leadership slate at the May 2025 state convention on Kauai.  Somewhat starstruck by her association with the Trump campaign, he assumed she could be trusted and that she wanted the best for HRP.  Hannemann found out the hard way that two of his running mates intended for his two-year tenure as state chair to be very brief . . . just enough time to emerge from his shadow and quickly take over.  Ostrov was one of those running mates.  The other is Hannemann’s lifelong friend and political ally Bob McDermott.

And quickly take over they have.  Based on our reporting and our interview with Art, during a secret emergency meeting of HRP’s few remaining executive officers called together by Ostrov last night, HIRA News can report that Art Hannemann was replaced by Shirlene Ostrov as state chair.  Moments later during this same meeting, Ostrov moved quickly to consolidate power with loyalists . . . operatives who are as corrupt, liberal and incompetent as she is . . . but most importantly – LOYAL TO OSTROV.

Dennis Mataia resigned and was replaced as treasurer by former Democrat staffer Lani Kaaa (a wannabe political operative with a long losing streak who herself fell short back in March when running for Honolulu GOP county chair, despite VIP endorsements galore).  Susan Duffy resigned and was replaced as vice-chair of coalitions by election cheating and interference specialist Sheila Walker.  Steve Yoder resigned (another specialist in cheating and election interference) and was replaced as vice-chair of communications by Ostrov loyalist Fenton “Kaulana” Lee.  Ostrov loyalist Boyd Ready resigned (apparently as a pretext to accuse Hannemann of wrongdoing) and was reappointed as chairman of HRP’s powerful Rules Committee by Ostrov, who knows she can count on Ready to do her bidding.

One way that Boyd Ready proved himself to Ostrov was by helping to create a brand new “Disciplinary Committee” for dealing with alleged party ‘rulebreakers’.  Ostrov herself ensured just one month ago that Art Hannemann, her running mate at the state HRP convention just weeks earlier, would be referred to that committee to stand trial for accusations made by supporters of Art’s predecessor Tamara McKay, whom Art bested at the state convention and unseated.  Normally, Ostrov wouldn’t care about complaints levied by opponents of “Team Art”, especially the likes of Honolulu GOP county chairman Nolan Chang or Maui GOP county chair Tammy Perkins.  But at a special secret meeting a few weeks ago (to which then state chair Hannemann wasn’t even invited to), Ostrov pushed for the new disciplinary committee to fast track an investigation into some pretty questionable allegations against Hannemann and to set the stage for putting Hannemann on trial.

Here’s where our interview with Art and the timeline of events gets interesting . . .

Days before this secret meeting last month to lay the groundwork for ousting Hannemann, Art had caught wind that Ostrov and McDermott were actively plotting against him (including lying about Art and his alleged misdeeds to influence and recruit other party leaders to join their coup) and learned they had only used him as ‘top of the ticket’ on the ‘Team Art’ leadership slate so they could get into power at HRP.  Once Art understood what they were up to, he asked them both to resign their executive officer posts at HRP; a bold move which Hannemann now knows forced their hand and caused them to dig deeper and expedite their plans.

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Little did Art know how much work these two had already done to set in motion the campaign to eliminate Art Hannemann as state chair.  With his insistence that they step aside, they moved even faster to tighten the noose.  Days later, in early October, Ostrov (possibly the most corrupt state chair HRP has ever endured) had secured enough votes on HRP’s executive committee to launch her nuclear option:  approve her motion to file a set of charges with the new Disciplinary Committee and obtain expedited handling of the ‘case’ to ratchet up the pressure on Hannemann . . . because she ‘cares’ so much about integrity, transparency, and obedience to party rules that she was willing to sacrifice the leader of “Team Art” to maintain the illusion that her opportunistic power grab was actually about ‘doing the right thing’ because “Art declared he would never follow the rules”.  Hannemann tells HIRA News this fake quote was peddled by Ostrov to secure the votes to put him on trial.

With lightning speed, the new ‘disciplinary committee’ made recommendations that Art’s power be taken away while he is put on trial to answer for the allegations made by a Hannemann opposing dissident faction of HRP, which is usually ignored by party insiders like Ostrov, McDermott and their allies, such as Big Island county chair Monique Perreira.  Suddenly, Team Ostrov was ratcheting up the pressure on Art to resign; demanding a special meeting to present Art with the charges against him.  This is when Art saw the writing on the wall and probably wished he had learned more about Shirlene Ostrov before agreeing to allow her to be his running mate.

Some background about that slate:  Hannemann started promoting his interest in running for state chair after the November 2024 General Election.  As he put the “Team Art” slate together, he told his running mates that he was busy launching a new business in Samoa, so he’d not be able to attend every single meeting of party leaders.  Ostrov did indeed lead many if not most party meetings held since May.  But Hannemann did actively organize and fund trips to the neighbor islands, where he and Bob McDermott provided training of grassroots volunteers for canvassing.

As a former candidate for office himself, Hannemann knew that anyone willing to run as a Republican in Hawaii needed party members living in those precincts and districts to do the door-to-door organizing which helped candidates to increase their chances of success.  His highest priority was organizing the party and partnering with like-minded organizations (such as Turning Point) for canvassing and identifying issues, to make it easier for candidates to succeed in hopes of getting as many as a dozen new Republicans elected in 2026.  Developing this network cost Hannemann personal money to fly himself and McDermott for these party-building initiatives.

But, in the wake of all the subterfuge and backstabbing, Art has now left the building.  Having donated $5,000 to HRP plus making recurring contributions of $250 per month, he has no plans to go near the Hawaii GOP again.  He remains a Republican and a conservative and an activist.  But Shirlene Ostrov and Bob McDermott revealed their true colors and he feels very, very betrayed and disappointed.  And it’s clear that if they have the support from other party leaders to behave this abominably, they can’t expect Art Hannemann or others objecting to such chicanery to stick around.  Art told HIRA News today that he doesn’t want to hurt the party, since so much is at stake in Hawaii and across the country.  But he is pulling out of HRP altogether.

Sickened at being used to help Ostrov and McDermott gain power and positions – and sickened at being ruthlessly tossed aside – Art looks back and realizes that he didn’t know what kind of person Ostrov really was until it was too late.  He tells us that he was warned repeatedly to not talk with HIRA News and to keep his distance from anyone at HIRA.  Our team would have happily warned him about Ostrov AND about his ‘lifelong friend’ McDermott, as both are insanely corrupt, self-serving and unprincipled; perfectly capable of backstabbing and turning on a dime.  As they say in politics, once you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.  And Art Hannemann put his faith in two faithless cretins who are among the biggest fakes in HRP.

OBVIOUSLY A COUP, IN RETROSPECT:  When Ostrov unveiled the brand new ‘disciplinary committee’ and then worked to move her case against Art ahead of several other existing cases just last month, that was a red flag that her coup to force out Art Hannemann was gaining steam.  When the state chair didn’t even get invited to that secret meeting of Art’s own running mates turned executive officers, that was just more evidence of the advance planning to jettison Hannemann, just days after Art found out what Big Shirl and Bob McDonut were up to.  Resignations were kept secret and Ostrov secretly got new people lined up to take their places at last night’s secret emergency meeting.  Then, last night, when Ostrov and her cronies already had people selected to fill vacant spots that nobody else knew were even vacant, that was the icing on the cake.  Ostrov planned to take over the party all along, and Art was essentially just a disguise she wore to keep the attention off her past.  Heck, Ostrov didn’t even attend the state convention.  What a better way to keep a low profile and to keep tongues from wagging about her sordid history and downfall as state chair in 2020 than to pretend you have a wedding or a funeral to attend and “can’t make the convention”.

While Hannemann feels betrayed by Ostrov and his lifelong friend Bob McDonut and their flunkies, he’s never been told about any charges against him or about any ‘trial’ until he heard it from HIRA News today.  It seems that the threatened ‘trial’ and ‘charges’ against Hannemann are likely a ruse concocted to force Hannemann to quit.  Now that he’s gone, the ruse is being kept alive just a bit longer to keep Ostrov’s cabal united behind their coup and its manufactured rationale to elevate Ostrov to the top spot.  With Hannemann saying that he didn’t handle any finances at all, rumors spreading about financial impropriety are also ‘more lies’.  But all of this intrigue happened out of the view of party members, party donors and party volunteers who are rightfully ashamed at the sad state of affairs at HRP, while Republicans nationally are making real progress.

Finally, it comes as no surprise that Art’s resignation letter endorsed someone OTHER than backstabbing Ostrov to take his place, recommending HRP national committeewoman Laura Nakanelua.  Likewise, with Hannemann’s former best friend Bob McDermott challenging state senator Kurt Fevella in next year’s Republican Primary, it’s no surprise that (in the midst of being pushed out by Ostrov and McDermott) Hannemann threw his support to Fevella.  Nakanelua tells HIRA News that she’s not interested in seeking the top job.  But sources at last night’s meeting seem certain that Nakanelua isn’t looking forward to seeing Crooked “Big Shirl” Ostrov take Hannemann’s place.

FRIENDLY WARNING:  Looking at the individuals who NOW comprise the top leadership of HRP in the wake of this coup, there can be no doubt that financial scandals, political mistakes, leftward ideological drift, and plain old corruption are right around the corner.  Art belatedly learned a valuable lesson about getting to know the players before going on the field with them.  Don’t be starstruck because Ostrov got to head up the Trump delegation from Hawaii.  Don’t assume that she is conservative, competent, experienced or full of integrity.  She’s none of those things.  The hard lesson learned by Art is just as valuable a lesson for ALL REPUBLICANS here in Hawaii.  Get to know the folks in control of HRP.  The more you know about them, the sooner you’ll understand why Democrats keep winning.  Auwe!

Bottom Line:  Hannemann left because of Shirlene Ostrov’s self-serving and destructive agenda.  Don’t make the same fatal assumption that Ostrov knows what she’s doing or that she can be trusted.  Stay tuned for HIRA News’ upcoming story with Top 25 reasons Ostrov is toxic to HRP.  Nobody with her sorry record should be anywhere near the Hawaii GOP, let alone running the party.

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Honolulu, Hawaii — The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is once again engulfed in scandal.  [This part you may already know.]  On Tuesday, September 23, 2025, the OHA Board of Trustees voted in a closed door session to place Chief Executive Officer Stacy Kealohalani Ferreira on ‘paid administrative leave’. Ferreira told staff in a memo that she was taking “personal leave,” but Board Chair Kai Kahele confirmed the action the next day in an all staff meeting and announced that Biden Interior Dept. appointee turned Kahele’s chief of staff, Summer Sylva, would step in as interim CEO.

But the part you probably DON’T know, because the local news media refuses to tell you, is that just three days after Ferreira was put on ‘personal leave‘, OHA got slapped with a LAWSUIT they knew was coming.  Yes, HIRA News can report how severe misbehavior by top leaders at OHA is directly connected to their belated decision to ask the problematic CEO to step aside . . . and that others at OHA may soon find themselves no longer having a desk to work at inside what is arguably one of the worst-run and most ill-conceived government agencies around.  Local reporters and anchors seems to be helping OHA to downplay and disguise the real reason for Ms. Ferreira being put on ‘paid administrative leave’.  Not HIRA News!

Before revealing the hidden aspects of this sudden ‘ouster’, it’s gotta be mentioned how Civil Beat casually reported that “OHA spokesman Bill Brennan confirmed that Ferreira sent an email to OHA employees after the board voted to approve her paid leave on Tuesday, but that her message didn’t say when she would be back.”  The funny part about OHA’s spokesman being circumspect about what’s really going on relates to WHO the spokesman actually is.  The Office of Hawaiian Affairs employs Mufi Hannemann’s old spokesman for the mayor’s office (and spokesman for Crooked Mufi’s campaign).  You remember, the really hard-to-take-seriously guy who got put on leave after being arrested for drunk driving is now writing press releases about OHA putting its “Ka Pouhana” (what the agency calls its CEO) on leave.  [Apparently, there weren’t any non-drunk driving part-haole/part-Hawaiians available for the spokes-job.]  Of course, since OHA’s press releases are all in American English, Bill can probably handle that as well as he helped Mufi handle Mufi.

Interesting also is that the alleged victim of recent shenanigans at OHA (which led to the sudden and apparent ouster of its CEO) had previously been victimized with 1st degree terroristic threatening by militant sovereignty activists who briefly ‘took over’ OHA six years ago.  Naturally, the woke virtue signalers at the Honolulu Prosecutor’s office chose not to prosecute, even after describing the crime as “harassment strike shove kick insult taunt” by Remedio Lawrence Kawai Dabaluz of the so-called ‘Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi’.  Hopefully, this victim’s luck is about to turn around after being mistreated by both kingdom nutjobs and by those nation within a nation ‘land and money’ types who infest OHA.

Well, without any further ado, let’s rip off the shroud obscuring the real goings on at OHA.  HIRA News’ Kai Lorinc has the story you’re NOT being told . . .

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The timing of Ms. Ferreira’s removal is striking.  Just three days later, on Friday, September 26, 2025, former OHA Public Policy Manager Zurishaddai “Zuri” C. Aki (pictured here) filed a whistleblower lawsuit in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The case, docketed as 1CCV-25-0001598, was assigned to the Seventh Division under Judge Taryn R. Tomasa.  Former Democrat state house candidate and former Civil Beat columnist Aki is represented by a legal team led by civil rights attorney Eric A. Seitz, joined by Jonathan Loo, Michael Klinger, and Rosalyn G. Payen. Together, they filed a complaint that provides a laid out a step by step account of what Aki describes as retaliation, harassment, defamation, and violations of Hawaii’s Whistleblower Protection Act.

LAWSUIT HERE:  https://hiranews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/OHA-whistleblower-lawsuit.pdf

The narrative in the lawsuit begins in early December 2023. According to the filing, Ferreira directed Aki to prepare testimony for Trustee Carmen Hulu Lindsey regarding East Maui revocable water permits, a politically fraught issue.  Plaintiff Aki objected in writing, saying testimony of that kind required both review by legal counsel and approval of the Board of Trustees. He warned that bypassing those safeguards could expose OHA to legal and ethical risk. Aki’s civil complaint says his warnings were brushed aside.

What followed, Aki alleges, was overt intimidation in the office. In a December 6, 2023 meeting, OHA Advocacy Director Keʻōpūlaulani Reelitz allegedly lost her temper raising her voice so loudly that others could hear, pulling her own hair, growling, scowling, sighing audibly, and belittling Aki’s competence. The complaint characterizes the environment as “intimidating, uninviting, and toxic,” and says the pattern left Aki depressed, fearful, and mentally exhausted.

On December 9, Aki filed a formal HR complaint documenting the conduct. Nine days later December 18 OHA fired him. The agency said he engaged in misconduct tied to the procurement of souvenir ceramic cups for OHA’s 2024 legislative package.  Aki calls the charge a pretext. He points to prior guidance he says he obtained from the state Ethics Commission, which advised him to treat the items as gifts “to play it safe” while the question was reviewed.

The dispute carried into Aki’s unemployment claim. OHA opposed benefits, telling the state he had been discharged for cause. The Unemployment Insurance Division initially agreed, and an administrative referee affirmed. But, six grueling months later, in May 2025, Circuit Judge John Tonaki reversed those rulings and restored Aki’s benefits, undercutting OHA’s assertion that misconduct justified the firing.  Such a ruling all but guaranteed a lawsuit by Aki against his former friends at the highly dysfunctional OHA.

Aki’s civil suit seeks back pay and other damages, general and punitive damages, statutory fines per-violation under state law, attorneys’ fees and costs, and pre and post judgment interest. Defendants include the agency itself, Ferreira, former Chief Operating Officer Casey Brown, and Reelitz.

Ferreira’s suspension lands atop years of churn inside the agency. OHA has struggled to hold senior talent. Its chief operating officer left after roughly a year the long time chief of finance retired, and Ferreira herself acknowledged at a September 18 board session that about 20 percent of OHA’s 166 positions were vacant 34 jobs unfilled with plans to trim the vacancy rate by year’s end. In that same period the board elevated K. Sean Kekina to COO and praised Sylva’s government and advocacy background while tapping her as interim administrator until further notice. The trustees say they intend to maintain continuity of operations.

Beyond personnel, however, lies a familiar, corrosive critique: money and accountability. Over decades, state audits and watchdogs have flagged weak internal controls, non-competitive or poorly documented contracts, and spending that critics say fails to produce measurable outcomes for the public the agency claims to serve. Detractors argue the pattern is not random mistakes but a durable system of patronage where public dollars are steered to insiders. In the blunt words of several critics, OHA has operated “like an organized crime ring for ethnic Hawaiians,” with allegations that money earmarked for housing, healthcare, education, and community services has instead fed political allies, lobbyists, and personal agendas. Those allegations some described as embezzlement or “missing money” remain the subject of intense public debate the agency has long disputed suggestions of widespread criminality, and not every accusation has been adjudicated. But the cumulative effect is clear taxpayers fund an institution entrusted with roughly $600 million in trust assets, and the returns are indefensibly thin.

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The legal foundation of the agency is also under renewed scrutiny. In Rice v. Cayetano (2000), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down OHA’s ancestry-based voter eligibility rules, holding that limiting trustee elections by ancestry violated the Fifteenth Amendment. In 2023, the Court sharply restricted the use of race in government linked decision making when it ended race conscious college admissions an area distinct from OHA but widely read as signaling hostility to racist ancestry supremacy.

Unlike federally recognized tribes, ethnic Hawaiians do not hold political status under federal law. That distinction matters because the high court in Morton v. Mancari (1974) treated preferences tied to federally recognized tribes as political, not racial. Critics contend OHA can’t claim the Mancari shield and that racist programs at state agencies will struggle under modern Equal Protection review. Even past efforts to dismantle OHA have often faltered not on the merits but on standing and procedural grounds, leaving the constitutional question unresolved and likely to resurface.

For now, Ferreira remains on leave. Sylva has told staff her priority is stability and continuity. But with a detailed whistleblower case now before Judge Tomasa, with workplace retaliation allegations on the record including the meeting where an OHA executive allegedly yelled, pulled her hair, and growled at a subordinate and with longstanding claims of missing money and patronage again in the headlines, OHA faces a reckoning that is legal, political, and moral all at once. Whether the agency can demonstrate fiduciary competence and constitutional compliance will define the next chapter.

WHITE HOUSE:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/

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