The Hawaii Supreme Court denied today a request by retired car dealer James Pflueger to review a state appeals court ruling upholding manslaughter charges against him over the deaths of seven people killed after the 2006 Kaloko Dam breach.

In its one-sentence order, the high court unanimously rejected Pflueger’s request.

The decision clears the way for Pflueger to be tried in Kauai Circuit Court on the manslaughter charges.

Pflueger appealed Kauai Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano’s decision last year refusing to dismiss the charges. 

In June, a three-judge panel of the Intermediate Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Valenciano’s decision.

The seven people died when hundreds of thousands gallons of water surged from the Ka Loko reservoir on Kauai’s north shore on March 14, 2006.