Convicted felon Katherine Kealoha is not getting a new trial.

At least not any time soon.

U.S. District Chief Judge J. Michael Seabright on Wednesday decided not to hear a motion for a new trial before Kealoha is sentenced in October for conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

But rather than deny the request outright, Seabright basically put it on hold.

Attorney Earle Partington, who was hired by Kealoha’s family near the end of the conspiracy trial in June, filed the motion, arguing that Kealoha’s court-appointed attorney during the trial provided ineffective counsel. He asked the court to hear the motion before issuing a final judgment, which comes at sentencing.

Kealoha, a former deputy prosecutor; her husband, retired Honolulu police Chief Louis Kea­loha; and police officers Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen and Lt. Derek Wayne Hahn are scheduled to be sentenced in October for conspiring to frame Katherine Kealoha’s uncle for the 2013 theft of the couple’s mailbox and attempting to thwart a federal investigation.

After the trial, Seabright granted the request of Cynthia Kagiwada, Kealoha’s court-appointed attorney, to be removed as her lawyer. Kagiwada told the court the attorney- client relationship had broken down and could not be repaired.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Seabright, who presided over the four-week trial, said he didn’t see anything obvious that would rise to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel — the legal threshold that Partington would have to prove — and therefore said he wanted to proceed with the current schedule.

Kealoha also faces two other related trials, one in January for bank fraud and identity theft and another in May for drug-related charges.

To decide the motion before sentencing likely would result in long delays in all three cases and could run counter to the interests of justice, according to Seabright.

But Partington argued that waiting until after sentencing puts his client at a disadvantage.

If she were to accept responsibility for the charges she was convicted of to lessen her sentence, that would undermine her motion for a new trial, he said after Wednesday’s hearing.

Similarly, if Kealoha struck a plea deal in the two other cases, that also would undermine her request for a new trial, according to Partington, who does not represent her in the two other cases.

The prosecution opposed Kealoha’s motion.

Partington told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he intended to seek a new trial regardless of when the motion is heard, saying he has a strong case.

Kealoha, who is in federal custody pending her sentencing, attended Wednesday’s hearing in her prison jump suit. Gary Singh, Kealoha’s court-appointed attorney for the two upcoming trials, sat in the gallery.