The Hawaii Supreme Court has overturned a former circuit judge’s order disqualifying two city deputy prosecutors from a high-profile gambling case involving sweepstakes machines.

In December, Circuit Judge Randal K.O. Lee ruled that Katherine Kealoha and Jacob Delaplane were disqualified from handling the case because they lacked the necessary experience.

In May 2014, a grand jury indicted nine defendants on 414 counts of gambling, money laundering and racketeering in connection with sweepstakes machines Honolulu police had seized from arcades on Oahu in September 2012.

At the prosecution’s request, Lee dismissed the case in October and gave the prosecutor the opportunity to seek a new indictment because Delaplane told the court he had identified potential deficiencies in the indictment. Delaplane said he also wanted to pursue additional defendants.

The lawyers for the nine defendants cried foul because the request to dismiss came one day after Lee denied the state’s request for more time to answer allegations that Delaplane and Kealoha knowingly presented false information to the grand jury.

In his order to disqualify the attorneys, Lee said whatever misconduct was committed by the deputy prosecutors when they presented the case to the grand jury was probably done due to their inexperience. He therefore denied the defendants’ request to throw out the case for good.

In February, the prosecutor’s office challenged Lee’s order to disqualify the attorneys in the Hawaii Supreme Court. In a petition to the court, Delaplane argued that Lee’s order was based on information that was “clearly insufficient to support disqualification” due to a “lack a proper factual basis” and was “not part of the ‘considered evaluation’ required” by the court.

The petition also claimed that Lee’s order resulted in immediate and irreparable harm because it “seriously disrupts the progress of litigation” and “sullies the reputation of the affected attorneys.”

In its ruling on Tuesday, the Hawaii Supreme Court overturned and invalidated Lee’s order, noting that “the basis upon which the circuit court grounded disqualification is insufficient.”

City Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro said in a news release: “Lee’s order was illegal, and today the highest court in the state recognized that.” He added, “We stand ready to move forward with the prosecution of this case to ensure that the people involved in these organized crime and gambling operations are brought to justice.”