My latest update on the case of Mike Miske, former owner of Kamaaina Termite, M Nightclub, and other local businesses, was published by Civil Beat this morning (“Mike Miske’s Attorneys Go On Attack Over FBI Search Warrants/Federal prosecutors said that evidence gathered from Miske’s boat Painkiller won’t be presented at trial“).

Short version: Miske’s attorneys are asking for significant evidence to be thrown out because they claim the search warrants the led to the evidence were illegal. Five motions were filed, and five responses were submitted by prosecutors. Far more issues were raised than I could possibly explain in a single story, but I looked at several examples.

Two things of note. First, in reply to one of Miske’s motions, prosecutors disclosed they will not use any forensic evidence collected in the 2017 search of Miske’s 37′ Boston Whaler, “Painkiller.” Important, because one theory of the case is that the boat was used to dispose of Jonathan Fraser’s body at sea. But the search was likely something of a long shot, as it came a little more than a year after Fraser had disappeared.

And, second, none of the remaining co-defendants–Dae Han Moon, Jarrin Young, Delia Fabro Miske, Jason Yokoyama, and John Stancil–sought to exclude evidence in their respective cases.

I apologize for the length of today’s Civil Beat story. It was actually longer, until I realized it was just too long. I had to start cutting sections out of it or no one would read it. Suffice to say, there are more issues raised and being debated than I could deal with in this story, and it will be very interesting to see what Judge Derrick Watson decides when he hears the matter in a couple of weeks.

I spoke with two experienced criminal defense lawyers to get a better idea of what’s involved in this stage of the legal case, where lawyers can try to convince a judge to throw out evidence before trial. Both Ken Lawson and Victor Bakke were generous in sharing their time and insights.

One of Lawson’s first comments really sets up the story.

“I love this stuff,” he told me, excitment in his voice. “In law school, this is called criminal procedure. Like you see in the movies, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.”

And so there is!