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Teddy Munet, charged in an escape from a pretrial hearing on murder charges, missed a scheduled Circuit Court appearance Monday morning, the third time he has not shown up in court.
On Feb. 20, Munet escaped from the custody of Oahu Community Correctional Center guards just before a morning Circuit Court hearing on charges in the 2012 murder of William Fallau. Police captured Munet nearly 12 hours later, several blocks away on Waimanu Street in Kakaako.
On Thursday, Munet missed his second appearance, an arraignment on second-degree escape and second-degree robbery charges. His bail for those charges is $250,000.
Toni Schwartz, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman, said Munet was in the Kalihi prison’s law library Thursday and refused to appear for his arraignment, which was to have been held via closed-circuit video link. Schwartz said the department can’t force Munet to show up for his arraignment. She said it would be up to the judge to determine whether he was in contempt of court.
Late Monday, Schwartz said Munet’s failure to appear for a third time in Circuit Court was "due to a slight scheduling misunderstanding."
Munet was to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
At that time a deputy public defender at the prison told Circuit Judge Richard Perkins via a closed-circuit video link that he didn’t know whether Munet was at the Kalihi facility or being transported to the courthouse. Munet had been given the choice to enter a plea in person at the downtown Circuit Court room before Perkins or via the video link.
Perkins rescheduled Munet’s hearing for Thursday morning.
After the hearing, Schwartz maintained that the Public Safety Department was told that Munet’s Monday arraignment was canceled despite the fact that it was posted on the Circuit Court’s third-floor bulletin board and in front of Perkins’ chambers Monday morning. Throughout Monday’s proceedings, Munet was in his prison cell, Schwartz said.
Schwartz said prison officials may have misunderstood Perkins’ intentions.
However, even the deputy prosecuting attorneys and the public defenders handling Monday’s arraignment calendar didn’t seem be aware of the cancellation order when Perkins called on Munet to enter a plea.
Munet’s murder trial is scheduled for the week of Oct. 7.
Munet was being held at OCCC before his February escape on $1 million bail. He is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, possessing drug paraphernalia and three firearm counts.
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