The federal trial of Michael Miske and his co-defendants has been delayed again.

Miske and ten others were named in a 22 count indictment in June 2015. It alleges Miske controlled and directed a criminal organization that engaged in a number of different criminal activities ranging from murder and murder-for-hire to drug trafficking, armed robbery, weapons offenses, and bank fraud.

Two defendants have already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Originally scheduled to begin in September 2020, the trial had been postponed for a year, and was set to begin in September 2021.

But an agreement between prosecutors, Miske, and all but two of the remaining co-defendants led to a joint motion for another six month trial delay. The motion argues the complexity of the case and the amount of evidence required additional preparation time to ready for what is expected to be a complicated case when it gets to trial.

A hearing on the motion was held before Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield on June 22.

Assistant US Attorney Mark Inciong told Mansfield an additional six-month delay is reasonable, given the various actors, the complexity of the case, and the possible death penalty that still hangs over Miske.

Inciong argued that the case is still “relatively new, all things considered.” There has been only one prior change in the trial date, pushing to back from September 2020 until September 2021, and he noted all except two of the defendants have joined in supporting the requested delay.

“A one year delay in a complex case has been held to be reasonable,” Inciong said, citing case precedents.

Attorneys for other defendants supporting the delay either indicated their support in writing, or appeared and briefly stated their agreement.

Lynn Panegakos, one of the lawyers representing Miske, told Mansfield she has been informed that prosecutors have released additional evidence for review by the defendants and their attorneys.

“We have not received that yet,” Panagakos said, but has been told it consists of an additional 251 gigabytes of material. “I believe there will be more voluminous discovery coming after that,” Panegakos added.

However, the delay was opposed actively by attorneys representing Michael Buntenbah, and a second defendant, Jarrin Young, joined in that opposition.

Michigan-based Gary Springstead, one of Buntenbah’s lawyers, said that while Buntenbah is not presently incarcerated, “there are significant restrictions on his freedom.”

“He is not allowed to leave the country, or the state, and not allowed to leave the island of Oahu without permission.”

Further, Springstead said, “the pretrial publicity he continues to endure…continues to impact hn and his business every day this drags on, and that makes for real tangible losses to his income, and the amount of support he can provide to his family.”

Finally, Springstead said he intends to request that Buntenbah be tried separately from Miske and the other defendants.

“The so-called Miske Enterprise is accused in a death penalty eligible case, with all sorts of charges, all of which Michael Buntenbah has nothing to do with,” he argued.

“Because of that, we would like to have a speedy trial, whether severed or not, in order to preserve his rights,” Springstead said.

As of June 30, no motion has been filed seeking a separate trial for Buntenbah.

Attorney Dana Ishibashi, speaking on behalf of defendant Jarrin Young, said the evidence against his client is “marginal at best.”

“He (Young) is in custody, and he needs to assert his right to a speedy trial, and get this settled as soon as possible,” Ishibashi said.

In reply, Inciong said that while Buntenbah is under pretrial restrictions, he has previously asked for and received permission to travel to the Big Island. Further, Inciong said, “the government does not believe the effect on this business can be quantified,” and in any case does not rise to a level where it would outweigh other factors.

As to Young, Inciong noted he is jointly charged with other defendants in a number of counts, and said there is obviously a disagreement between the government and the defense as to the strength of the evidence.

Following the arguments, Mansfield granted the motion to continue the trial until next March, over the objections of Buntenbah and Young.

Jury selection in the case is now scheduled to begin on March 21, 2022, before Judge Derrick Watson.

Meanwhile, on the same day as the hearing, Miske’s attorneys withdrew his motion seeking to hold the warden of Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center in contempt failing to comply with a January 2021 court order. That order called for Miske’s access to computers and to communication with his legal team be increased significantly. Withdrawl of the motion apparently results from an agreement for access considered sufficient by his defense team.