Michael Buntenbah, who was one of Mike Miske’s original 10 co-defendants but pleaded guilty a year ago in Miske’s federal racketeering case, entered a “no contest” plea in state court to two felony assault charges. The plea was entered in October, and Buntenbah is scheduled to be sentenced in the state case on August 23.

Buntenbah, 51, faced two charges of assault in the second degree, both class C felonies carrying a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.The charges date back to an assault on a group of local men who were customers at Miske’s M Nightclub in January 2016.

This description is from a blog post on August 2, 2020.

Evelyn Cullen is the mother of two young men prosecutors say were violently assaulted by Buntenbah and other bouncers in a January 31, 2016 incident at the M Nightclub, which was managed by Miske. She wants to make sure the attack on her sons and their friends isn’t ignored.

Cullen said her sons and two friends were attacked as they were preparing to leave the club at around 3:30 a.m.

One of the men, Chase Aki, was allegedly attacked without warning by a group of bouncers dressed in matching black clothing, including Buntenbah.

Aki later recounted the attack in a sworn deposition, portions of which were filed in court in a related civil lawsuit.

And so I went into the restroom, and I used the restroom. And as I was walking out, I was looking down and fixing my belt, and then as I was fixing my belt, I got struck. I never seen anything, I got hit, and then I woke up on the ground. I regained consciousness on the floor, and I seen everybody in the black clothes with the shoes all surrounding me with somebody pressuring e down from the back, holding me down like knee in the middle of my back, pushing me down, like by my shoulders, and then shoved my head back to the ground as I started waking up, and then as he was holding me down, I seen like a lot of feets around me, and then one came around and punt me and kicked me right in the face….while the other guy was still holding me down, and then so he kicked me, and he kicked me in the fact. And then he ended up, the guy that was on me, ended up put me in a chokehold….
When his friends tried to intervene, they were also attacked and repeatedly punched and kicked, according to the indictment in the case.

Pat Cullen was left unconscious on the ground outside the entrance to the club, with a broken collar bone and bleeding badly from a head wound. His brother worried Pat was going to die and refused to leave him.

Buntenbah was originally charged in 2017, but that case was dismissed in late 2021 after prosecutors failed to get the case to trial within a 6-month deadline, even after taking into account delays by agreement or requested by Buntenbah’s attorney.

Meanwhile, in the Miske case, Buntenbah pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering. He is awaiting sentencing. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop two drug trafficking charges.

Miske and his brother, John Stancil, are also named in this federal conspiracy charge and are awaiting trial, along with six remaining co-defendants.

Miske also faces two felony charges in state court stemming from a December 2012 attack on a rival promoter. Stancil was also charged in the case, but pleaded “no contest” after the two charges were reduced to misdemeanors. Miske’s trial in that case has been postponed repeatedly, and is presently scheduled to take place in June.

See:

“Defend Hawaii” owner pleads guilty in Miske racketeering case, iLind.net, March 17, 2022