At a hearing earlier this week, Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield granted a motion to delay the trial of former Honolulu businessman Michael Miske and ten co-defendants until September 2022, rather than the previously approved March 2022 start. The additional six-month delay was supported by prosecutors, and Mansfield’s ruling was made over objections by attorneys for defendants Michael Buntenbah and Jarrin Young, who argued their clients rights to a “speedy trial” were at risk.

Defense attorney Lynn Panagakos spoke in favor of the delay.

“The trial is currently just four months away, and there’s just no way we can be ready,” Panagakos told the court, referring to the previously approved trial date in March 2022. She said Miske’s lawyers had received additional evidence to review in September, including some 70,000 pages and 60 GB of other files, which she said would take time to review and evaluate.

Assistant US Attorney Mark Inciong noted Jarrin Young is charged with being part of Miske’s alleged racketeering conspiracy, while Buntenbah is charged with assault in aid of racketeering. Providing separate trials for the pair would, Inciong said, “would require significant overlap of evidence as far as the racketeering aspect of the case,” and therefore the delay is justified by the interests of judicial economy and use of court resources.

Mansfield said he agreed with the motion and the need for more time, despite the objections by two defendants. Even with the previous trial delay from September 2021 to March 22, “counsel has represented they need additional time to review, confer with their client, prepare pretrial motions, and prepare for the trial iteself.”

The further continuance to September 2022 “is reasonable under the facts and circumstances of this case,” Mansfield said.

New dates were set, with the trial now scheduled to begin on Tuesday, September 6, 2022, right after the Labor Day holiday.

Meanwhile, state Circuit Court Judge Fa’auuga To’oto’o deferred the question of whether pending felony assault charges against Michael Buntenbah should be dismissed for violating the courts’ speedy trial rule, which requires cases to get to trial within 180 days. Following a Tuesday morning hearing during which Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lawrence Sousie said the state is not conceding a Rule 48 violation, To’oto’o continued the hearing until the morning of December 2.

Buntenbah faces federal drug-trafficking and “assault in aid of racketeering” charges in the Miske Enterprise case, although he is the only defendant in that case who is not charged with racketeering conspiracy. He is currently free on bond pending trial in the federal case.

The charges in this state case were filed in May 2017, and date back to an assault at Miske’s M Nightclub in January 2016. Buntenbah is charged with assaulting two men while he was working as a bouncer in the nightclub. He is accused of kicking one of the men in the face while he was held on the ground by others. Trial in the case was postponed a number of times, and there is now disagreement over whether the official 180-day period has been exceeded, after removing delays attributed to or agreed to by the defense.

Buntenbah was dropped from a civil lawsuit filed by the assault victims without admitting any liability after agreeing to a $30,000 settlement payment.

In a late-filed supplemental memo opposing dismissal of the case, Sousie argued that if rule has been violated, the case should be dismissed “without prejudice,” which would allow new charges to be filed, resetting the trial clock. Sousie urged the judge to consider the seriousness of the offenses, calling Buntenbah’s alleged attacks on two victims “violent” and “unprovoked,” causing “substantial bodily injury.”

“Justice would not be served if the State is not allowed the opportunity to prosecute this case based on the seriousness of the offense,” Sousie argued in the supplemental memo.