State Department special agent Christopher Deedy will have a new lead defense lawyer for his murder retrial, which was scheduled on Friday for late June or early July.

Thomas Otake will replace Brook Hart as the lead attorney for Deedy’s defense team.

Hart will continue to represent Deedy in what he called a “less prominent role” because he said he needs to devote time to his other clients.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn scheduled jury selection for June 16 with the trial to begin right after the panel is selected, possibly late that month or early July.

Otake, 38, a former deputy public defender, gained prominence as a criminal defense attorney in successfully representing Mike Sou of Aloun Farms.

In August 2011, during the fourth day of that federal trial, federal prosecutors dropped forced labor charges against Mike and his brother, Alec Sou.

Otake also represented one of three men acquitted in May by a federal jury of extortion charges involving The Shack Restaurant in Waikiki.

He currently represents Big Island cannabis advocate Roger Christie, who is scheduled to go on trial in October in federal court on marijuana trafficking charges.

Otake, a graduate of ‘Iolani School, Pacific University and the University of Hawaii’s law school, worked at the state public defender’s office from 2003 to 2007.

Otake asked for a retrial in August to give him time to prepare for the case. City Deputy Prosecutor Janice Futa urged Ahn to set the trial date at the first available date.

Karl Blanke, a Virginia lawyer, will also remain on the defense team, although Futa asked Ahn to sanction him with a fine and revoke the court’s permission allowing the out-of-state attorney to represent Deedy here.

Futa said Blanke deliberately misled the jury in closing arguments by saying Elderts had been “convicted” of resisting arrest when he knew it was a disorderly conduct case.

Hart said the sanctions would be “completely inappropriate.”

He said Blanke did not say Elderts had been “convicted” of resisting arrest and said Blanke is entitled to be here at a hearing on any sanctions request.

Ahn said Futa can file a formal motion for sanctions which would be heard when Blanke returns here.

DEEDY, 29, a Virginia resident free on $250,000 bond, did not appear at the hearing.

He is charged with murdering Kollin Elderts, 23, of Kailua, in the shooting early Nov. 5, 2011, at the McDonald’s Kuhio Avenue restaurant in Waikiki.

Deedy was here to provide security at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

Ahn declared a mistrial Aug. 26 after Deedy’s seven-week trial when the jury reported it could not unanimously decide whether the agent should be acquitted or convicted of the second-degree murder charge.

The jury foreman reported the split was 8-4 in favor of acquittal.