As we were leaving to have dinner with friends at their apartment on Tuesday evening, I caught part of a news broadcast reporting on the day’s proceedings in the racketeering trial of former Honolulu business owner Michael J. Miske Jr. I believe it was on Hawaii News Now, which is the news that we usually watch.
The story concerned testimony about the assault of a used car dealer, Majid Modaresi. I was very interested but missed most of the story as we prepared to leave the house. I wasn’t worried, as I figured I could just catch it online in the morning.
So, I was up early today and went looking for the story. No luck. No trace of it. I’ve checked all the local news broadcasts, nothing. Google News, nothing. And although there was a volunteer observer at the trial yesterday, I haven’t yet received her notes. So right now, I’m frustrated.
[Update: The story was later posted by Hawaii News Now (“At Miske trial, car dealer recounts story of assault that left him unconscious“).]
Modaresi is the third auto dealer to testify about Miske’s threats or violence, and I’ve heard of others.
Meanwhile, I’ve been relatively successful at recruiting volunteers to take notes on the daily trial proceedings, providing a record to use for reporting on the case. One resulting problem is that I’ve been snowed under by the avalanche of testimony. I’m pretty far behind right now, although I hope to start catching up soon. And, I’m learning, even carefully planned schedules get disrupted when a volunteer get sick, or has a last-minute conflict. So the system isn’t perfect, and is under some stress.
Stay tuned. I’ll try to get back to regular trial updates as soon as I can.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Wonderful for all of us that you undertook this project. Any news that comes out of it is a boon to our education about our state’s “blindness” toward sustained crime.& its perpetual perpetrators. Mahalo to you and your volunteers. Any delay that comes out of your reporting is nonexistent compared to the time it has taken
officials to identify & prosecute wrongdoers! We appreciate any & all that you & your helpers do to enlighten
us.
Thank you and all of the volunteers for everything that HAS been provided. As someone who is unable to help with the recording, I check daily for any updates. The amount of effort and time being put into this is amazing and appreciated.
I saw the piece on HNN twice yesterday, here is the synopsis. It was not detailed and referred to another person, whom you have reported on, that also got harassed by Miske for outbidding him for a car in the auction. It was noted that the beating left lasting effects on Mr. Modaresi, with periodic memory loss and, perhaps another ailment from it. the report did mention the questioning from the defendant’s lawyers, asking Mr. Modaresi if he knew who was beating him up. He responded, according to the report, that he could not identify anyone because they were masked. In listening to the report it left out the crosswalks of 1. Mr. Modaresi had already received prior harassment from Mr. Miske before, and that 2. There is probably at least one of the flippers who has said “Yes, that person was me” which the report didn’t say, but I thought in my mind that was the logical link to that attack.
HNN has published their article:
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2024/04/10/day-46-miske-trial-auto-dealership-owner-shares-story-assault-that-left-him-unconscious/