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The manslaughter trial for 86-year-old retired car dealer James Pflueger over the 2006 Ka Loko dam breach that had been set for Oct. 1 has been postponed again, this time until next year at the earliest.
Pflueger is charged with recklessly causing the deaths of seven people when the dam broke and sent hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Ka Loko reservoir toward Kauai’s North Shore, sweeping the seven to their deaths.
On the day before a hearing Thursday on a request by Pflueger to dismiss the charges, his lawyers and the state attorney general’s office filed an agreement postponing the trial and the dismissal hearing.
The trial was postponed pending a status conference before Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano in the first week of March to reset the trial date, according to the stipulation.
The lawyers also agreed to postpone the dismissal hearing without setting a new date.
Pflueger’s lawyer, David Minkin, and Deputy Attorney General Vince Kanemoto declined to comment on reasons for the postponements.
Pflueger, however, is scheduled to go on trial in February in federal court on tax charges of conspiracy, filing false returns and setting up a Swiss bank account to avoid reporting money from a California land sale.
That trial is estimated to take about three weeks.
Kanemoto was assigned the case about a month ago after Deputy Attorney General Kevin Takata took a leave of absence.
Takata is a candidate for the elected city prosecutor’s office in the Nov. 6 general election. He is running against city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro.
Mark Bennett, former Gov. Linda Lingle’s attorney general, originally handled the prosecution. Bennett presented evidence in 2008 to the Kauai grand jury that returned the seven-count manslaughter indictment.
Bennett is now in private practice.
Pflueger has already obtained a lengthy delay in the case. The trial at one point was scheduled for April 2010, but was postponed while his lawyers appealed Valenciano’s refusal to grant an earlier dismissal motion based on double jeopardy and other grounds.
The state appeals court upheld the charges in June last year. In November the Hawaii Supreme Court declined Pflueger’s request to review the ruling.
The latest dismissal motion alleges the grand jury was misled about grading violations at the Ka Loko reservoir. The state opposes the motion, calling it "meritless and frivolous."
Pflueger is accused of filling the dam’s safety valve for the reservoir, disregarding the risk that the dam might breach and lead to the deaths.
Manslaughter carries a maximum 20-year prison term.
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