Charges in gaming case dropped over trial delay

A state judge has dismissed another defendant from the gambling and racketeering case involving 77 arcade machines that Honolulu police seized in 2012 and a federal judge later deemed are gambling devices.

Alexander Alejandro was in jail in Hilo for a probation violation when an Oahu grand jury returned an indictment against him and five other former arcade workers in January on felony racketeering and gambling promotion charges.

The state did not serve Alejandro with the indictment and arrest warrant until July, two weeks after he was released from jail. By that time, the other five defendants had pleaded not guilty to the charges and agreed to a trial date beyond the six months required to meet the constitutional speedy trial requirement.

Because Alejandro did not agree to extend the speedy trial period, Circuit Judge Rom Trader determined on Wednesday that the 180 days in which the state is required to take Alejandro to trial have expired. He dismissed the charges against Alejandro with prejudice, denying Deputy Prosecutor Dean Young’s request for the opportunity to recharge Alejandro.

Trader was scheduled to decide Alejandro’s fate last month, but the prosecutor failed to send a deputy to the hearing.

The charges remain for Quentin Canencia, Gary Danley, Desiree Haina, Michael Madali Jr. and Clayton Simeona, but they have asked for the charges to be dismissed for other reasons. Trader will hand down his decision in January.

It was another deputy prosecutor who stood in front of Trader in August when Trader dismissed racketeering and gambling promotion charges against the man who distributed the machines and two others who owned the machines and the arcades. As with Alejandro, Trader dismissed the case against Tracy Yoshimura, Eugene Simeona Jr. and Michael Miller Jr. because the state had taken too long to take the men to trial — in large part because the prosecutor withheld the indictment and arrest warrants from the men for three months.