A state judge Thursday took back the bench warrant he had issued the day before for a defendant who was in court for trial but refused to speak in English.

Maui District Judge Blaine Kobayashi’s two-­sentence order doesn’t say why he recalled the $750 warrant. The official court record does not show any requests by either the prosecutor or the defendant, University of Hawaii-Maui College Hawaiian studies assistant professor Samuel Kaleikoa Kaeo.

Kaeo and the Maui County Department of the Prosecuting Attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

Kobayashi’s order scheduled a status and trial setting conference, and further hearing on the issue of a Hawaiian-language interpreter for Feb. 21.

Office of Hawaiian Affairs CEO Kamana‘opono Crabbe said in a written statement that while OHA appreciates that the state Judiciary will be reviewing its policies regarding Hawaiian-language interpreters, “this incident should have never occurred.”

The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. called Kobayashi’s bench warrant “inexplicable and nonsensical” and said it will wait to see how the matter unfolds at the Feb. 21 hearing.

Kaeo is one of six people Maui police arrested Aug. 2 on the highway going up to Haleakala. Police said protesters tried to block trucks carrying equipment for construction of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. Kaeo was charged with disorderly conduct, obstructing a public highway and refusing to comply with a lawful order or direction of a police officer.

At a Sept. 28 court hearing, Kaeo waived his right to a lawyer, pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested a Hawaiian-­language interpreter, according to state court records. The interpreter was present when Kaeo showed up in court for an Oct. 18 hearing.

An interpreter was not available when Kaeo showed up for a Nov. 22 hearing at which the prosecutor told Kobayashi she wanted to conduct the trial in English. In its written request the prosecutor says requiring a Hawaiian-­language interpreter will cause needless delay and unnecessary expense because Kaeo is fluent in English. The prosecutor also said a federal judge had ruled in a civil case that the right to assert a federally protected language does not extend to judicial proceedings.

Kaeo did not submit a written response.

According to the minutes of a Dec. 27 hearing on the prosecutor’s request, the designated interpreter was not present because of a family emergency. Kobayashi conducted the hearing and granted the prosecutor’s request, with Kaeo responding in Hawaiian.

The Hawaii Judiciary says Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires it to provide language interpreters when a party or a witness in a case has limited English proficiency or is unable to hear, understand, speak or use English sufficiently to effectively participate in court proceedings.

Hawaiian cultural practitioner Daniel Anthony says he has intentionally gotten traffic tickets so he can go to court and assert his right to participate in the proceeding in Hawaiian.

“I’ve been detained a couple of times,” he said, but no longer than six hours. When the judge ordered him back into court in the afternoon to conduct the hearing, the prosecutor would ask to have the case continued every time he refused to speak in English.

Anthony said the cases were dismissed, and the court eventually provided him a Hawaiian-language interpreter.