The trial for the alleged leader of a Hawaii organized crime outfit and six of his co-conspirators will be continued until January 2024 to allow the defense more time to prepare, a judge ruled this morning.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Derrick K. Watson granted a request to move the start date of Michael J. Miske Jr.’s trial from Sept. 11 to sometime in January 2024.

In a March 31 filing by Miske’s attorneys, Michael J. Kennedy and Lynn E. Panagakos argue that losing Miske’s lead counsel of two and a half years, Thomas Otake, forces the defense to take do more work with a lot less help.

Kennedy has estimated “that it appears more than 75 individuals may have given testimony in the grand jury and the list of potential witnesses to be included in the ‘availability to serve’ questionnaire may exceed 300 individuals,” according to a declaration filed March 31.

Otake withdrew after the U.S. Department of Justice successfully argued that his presence at a meeting with Miske and one of the government’s cooperating witnesses, who was allegedly involved in a California cocaine deal, created a conflict because Otake would likely be called to testify about that meeting at trial.

“Mr. Otake has been Mr. Miske’s lead trial counsel. Miske has always expected Mr. Otake to play an integral role in jury selection, make the opening statement, give the closing argument, cross-examine some of the important and critical witnesses, and conduct direct examinations of potential defense witnesses in response to the government’s case,” wrote Kennedy. “Mr. Miske now expects me to assume the role of lead trial counsel previously held by Mr. Otake…To state the obvious, my trial responsibilities have grown exponentially due to the Court’s ruling…”

Miske, John B. Stancil, Dae Han Moon, Preston M. Kimoto, Delia- Anne Fabro­-Miske, Jarrin Young and Jason K. Yoko­yama entered pleas of not guilty Dec. 14 to a third superseding indictment filed Dec. 8.