The last of a small cadre of former Honolulu police officers who abused their powers to protect an illegal gambling business was found guilty Friday, ending a criminal saga that led to federal charges against more than 35 people — including five former officers — over four years.

"The conviction closes a dark chapter in HPD history," said Honolulu police Chief Boisse P. Correa. "HPD fully cooperated with federal investigators from the start, and this case is a good example of why an officer's authority is restricted when allegations of serious misconduct surface."

The federal allegations resulted in one of the Ho-nolulu Police Department's biggest internal investigations ever.

On Friday, Kevin Brunn, a 47-year-old former police officer with 23 years of service who was on duty at the time but has since left the department, was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement for tipping off a Waialua family running a $2,000-a-day cockfighting, card and casino operation to police raids from November 2004 until March 2005.

Brunn also was convicted of conspiracy to extort property from the illegal gambling businesses owners — Douglas Gilman Sr., and his sons Douglas Gilman Jr., William Gilman and Charles Gilman — and four counts of extortion for ordering the Gilmans to pay him for protection from the police.

Brunn's wife, Micha Terragna, 42, was convicted of conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to obstruct the enforcement of gambling laws and four counts of extorting money from the Gilmans.

"First and foremost we don't condone the activities they were involved in. It was a dark day for the department and the union," said Tenari R. Maafala, president of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers. "Our heart goes out to Sgt. Brunn and his family; we feel for them. At the end of the day there was a human being with a badge. Although it is a small number of officers who were involved, one is too many. Whether the convictions occurred in federal court or state court it's not a good thing for us and it's not a good thing for the community."

The federal probe that netted Brunn and the Gilman family covered an array of loosely affiliated drug traffickers, illegal gambling business owners and extortionists.

5 OFFICERS CHARGED

Three police officers — Brunn, Bryson Apo and Glenn Miram — were charged with trying to protect the Gilmans' illegal operations; another, John Edwin Cambra IV, was charged with hiding cockfight gaffs; and a fifth, Barry Tong, was charged with possession of an unregistered machine gun.

Apo was sentenced in June 2007 to 18 months in prison for leaking sensitive information about the police department's gambling detail to protect a cockfighting operation.

Miram has pled guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Charges against Cambra were dismissed.

All have since left the HPD.

The indictments against the officers were handed down in April 2006 and triggered an immediate response from the department.

HPD expanded the ranks of its Internal Affairs division to include a Quality Assurance Division that worked to ensure all officers were complying with the department's code of conduct.

After the FBI turned over thousands of pages of transcripts from wiretapped conversations, HPD launched a massive internal investigation and disciplined an unknown number of officers. Every officer whose name was mentioned or who showed up in the wiretapped conversations was interviewed by HPD investigators.

"Taking proactive action is necessary whenever the integrity of the department or its officers is questioned," said Correa.

FBI INVESTIGATION

The prosecution was the result of an FBI investigation that began in late 2004 after the bureau discovered that Charmaine Moniz, a secretary in its drug squad, was leaking information to her drug-dealing husband. Eric Moniz pleaded guilty in February 2007 to conspiring with intent to distribute 1.1 pounds of methamphetamine.

A subsequent investigation, which included wire-tapped conversations, revealed that about five Honolulu police officers, including Brunn, were helping to protect the Gilman organization.

FBI suspicions about Moniz led to a two-year federal investigation that resulted in federal charges against more than 35 people, including Eric Moniz, five Honolulu police officers, the head of Aloha Stadium security and a Honolulu Liquor Commission inspector.

The FBI investigation, the most wide-ranging here in years, included taps on at least 10 phones and detailed an extensive web of illegal activity.

Following an eight-week trial before U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway, a federal jury found Brunn, Terragna, Douglas Gilman Sr., 79, his sons Douglas Gilman Jr., 56, and William Gilman, 50, guilty of conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business involving cockfighting, dice games and card games in Waialua from 2003 to 2005.

As part of a February 2007 plea agreement, Charles Gilman, 51, admitted to conspiring with Brunn, Apo and Waialua resident John Saguibo, and pleaded guilty to two counts of running drug and gambling conspiracies.

"Credit goes to the federal agencies who conducted this investigation," said Maafala.