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Trial date to be set for James Pflueger’s manslaughter case

A state judge is scheduled Thursday to set the date for retired auto dealer James Pflueger’s trial on seven counts of manslaughter for each of the seven people swept to their deaths when the Ka Loko dam breached on Kauai seven years ago.

Kauai Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano’s hearing was initially for a plea agreement between state prosecutors and Pflueger, but the court file said this week the hearing is now for the setting of a trial date.

The trial had been taken off the calendar pending the outcome of plea negotiations, which apparently did not result in a deal.

Pflueger, 87, is accused of filling the dam’s safety valve spillway and disregarding the risk that the dam might break and kill people.

The dam breached in March 2006 and sent hundreds of millions gallons of water from the Ka Loko reservoir downstream to Kauai’s north shore.

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