A longtime employee and friend of former Kamaaina Termite and Pest Control owner, Michael J. Miske Jr., testified last week that he had released a toxic chemical in two nightclubs that competed with Miske’s M Nightclub for the business of late night revelers.
The latest disclosure came from Alfredo Cabael, who admitted doing “dirty work” for Miske as well as working for Kamaaina Termite. He testified he had released chloropicrin, a chemical used in Miske’s termite fumigation business, in the Pearl nightclub, apparently referring to the Pearl Ultralounge in Ala Moana Center, not far from Miske’s M Nightclub. Then, several weeks later, he said he had carried out a similar attack on SoHo, a club in Honolulu’s Chinatown.
A government attorney asked: “Who told you to do that?”
Cabael replied it had been Miske.
Chloropicrin causes symptoms similar to tear gas, including burning eyes, coughing, and difficulty breathing. It can, in extreme circumstances, be fatal, according to an FBI toxicologist who testified in the trial.
The disclosure brings the total number of chemical attacks allegedly directed by Miske and carried out by employees or associates to five.
Two chemical attacks on successive nights in March 2017 are the basis for three of the 19 criminal charges against Miske, who is currently on trial in Honolulu’s Federal District Court.
A third attack targeted the Addiction nightclub in The Modern Hotel on December 20, 2015. It was described in testimony last month by the club’s director of security, and a server who was working when the chemical was released.
John Stancil, Miske’s half-brother, entered a guilty plea in January just as the trial was set to begin, and admitted he had provided the chloropicrin used in the two nightclub attacks in 2017. He also advised those involved on how to release the chemicals.
“Stancil knew how to do so because he himself had previously dispersed chloropicrin in a crowded Waikiki nightclub in 2015,” apparently a reference to the December 2015 attack at the Addiction. The admission appears in his written plea agreement filed in federal court.
Miske is charged with conspiracy to use a chemical weapon, and two counts of using a chemical weapon, for his role in directing the pair of attacks on The District and Ginza nightclubs in March 2017. Conviction on the chemical weapon charges carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He is also charged with 16 additional crimes, ranging from racketeering conspiracy, murder for hire conspiracy, kidnapping, assault in aid of racketeering, drug trafficking, bank fraud, obstruction of justice, and other offenses.
In addition to Stancil, three others have already pleaded guilty and admitted their role in the chloropicrin attacks. Jacob “Jake” Smith, who was trained in martial arts from a young age, admitted in his plea agreement with prosecutors that he was the driver during the 2017 chemical attacks. Two others, Kaulana Freitas and Ashlin Akau, have admitted entering the clubs and releasing the liquid chemical, which quickly turns into a gas.
Miske’s attorneys have argued chloropicrin is not a deadly weapon, and is safely used as a warning agent when fumigating structures for drywood termites with the deadly but odorless chemical, Vikane. Its effects warn anyone entering an area being treated with Vikane to stay out. They have characterized the releases of chloropicrin as akin to “pranks” rather than chemical weapon attacks, and questioned witnesses about whether anyone who had been exposed in the nightclubs required hospitalization. So far, all witness have answered in the negative.
However, one definition of a “chemical weapon” provided in the statue is “a toxic chemical and its precursors, except where intended for a purpose not prohibited under this chapter as long as the type and quantity is consistent with such a purpose.” In other words, the toxic chemical does not need to be explicitly manufactured or used by the government as a weapon of war in order to be considered a “chemical weapon.”
Multiple witnesses have described chloropicrin as a toxic chemical.
