A few more details about the upcoming trial of alleged racketeering boss Michael J. Miske, Jr. and six remaining co-defendants, were revealed during a status conference in Honolulu’s Federal District Court on Friday, presided over by Judge Derrick K. Watson.

Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin on April 17 and last an estimated two weeks, according to minutes of the court session. During jury selection, the court sessions will run daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The trial itself, scheduled to begin on April 17, is now expected to last up to five months. It isn’t clear from the minutes whether that includes the expected 2-weeks of jury selection.

Trial hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with two breaks, and will adjourn before lunch.

Selecting a jury

Approximately 2,000 “Ability to Serve” questionnaires are scheduled to be mailed out this week. The questionnaires will include the court’s daily schedule and the expected duration of the trial.

Prospective jurors deemed “available” based on their responses to the initial questionnaire will received a second, more substantive questionnaire. This more detailed questionnaire is still be prepared, and attorneys in the case have a February 6 deadline to submit proposed questions, as well as a list of expected witnesses to be called at trial.

Responses to the second questionnaire will be sent electronically to attorneys for the government and each of the defendants, who will be “expected to meet and confer to provide the Court with a singular list of individuals that should be excused from further participation in the trial and a joint list of individuals that ought to be summoned to appear on the first day of trial.”

Additional status conferences will be held “on a regular basis” to discuss jurors where no agreement has been reached.

Trial could still be delayed further

There was discussion of expected pre-trial motions that could affect the trial date. Watson encouraged the parties “to meet and confer to discuss whether intervening circumstances” justify a further delay in the trial, which had initially been scheduled for September 2020.

Miske did not attend the hearing. Also missing were his former employee and business partner, Jason Yokoyama; Delia Fabro-Miske, who was married to Mike Miske’s son, Caleb; and Preston Kimoto, a manager in Miske’s Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control, who also allegedly participated in some of Miske’s criminal activities.

Most attorneys were present in court, although one appeared by phone, and another by video teleconferencing.

Three defendants were also present–John Stancil, Miske’s younger half-brother; Dae Han Moon, previously convicted in state court of being the gunman in a murder at Ala Moana Center on Christmas 2016; and Jarrin Young, who is charged with being part of Miske’s racketeering conspiracy, and carrying and using a firearm in a drug trafficking crime. These three, along with Miske, have been held at Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center since their arrest in July 2020. At that time, Moon was already in state custody serving his state murder sentence.