Thursday, March 7, was Day 34 of the racketeering trial of former Kamaaaina Termite and Pest Control owner, Michael J. Miske Jr. The trial started January 6 with jury selection, and opening statements were on January 22.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Inciong provided a status report on the progress of the government’s case.

The government has called 69 witnesses to date, and decided to skip an additional 20 witnesses.

He said this meanns the case is “on track.”

The major witnesses so far have included Wayne Miller, at one time considered Miske’s #1 lieutenant, who pleaded guilty to conspiring with Miske and others to violate federal racketeering laws; Preston Kimoto, a former Kamaaina Termite manager who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping using a facility of interstate communication (and implicating Miske and Miller in that kidnapping plot); Kaulana Freitas, who pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and using a chemical weapon by releasing a toxic chemical in a Honolulu nightclub. Witnesses to date have also included victims of several assaults allegedly committed by Miske, or at his command, as well as other witneses to these incidents.

At this point, Inciong estimated the government’s case is 20 to 25 percent complete.

Judge Derrick Watson, who is presiding over the trial, welcomed the news.

“That’s more than I thought,” he said.

It took six weeks of trial to get through the first 69 witnesses, so, at this point, the government’s case appears unlikely to wrap up until June or July.

What a marathon!