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The sentencing hearing for two brothers who pleaded guilty to keeping 44 Thai immigrants as indentured laborers on one of Hawaii’s most well-known farms was postponed Monday afternoon after the defendants appeared to backpedal on their guilty pleas.

Alec and Mike Sou, owners of Aloun Farms in Kapolei, pleaded guilty in January of conspiring to commit forced labor. The Sous signed sworn statements admitting that they told the workers that they were not free to leave the farm and would be deported if they were disobedient. They also held onto the workers’ passports and withheld their earnings in numerous incidences.

But in their statements before the judge, both defense attorneys argued that the brothers played only a minor part in the conspiracy and instead tried to foist blame on the Thai-speaking associate who often acted as the Sous’ translator. The hearing ended with a visibly frustrated U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway questioning whether the Sous understood the crimes they had pleaded guilty to.

“I’m really at a loss to figure out what the defendants are saying they actually did wrong for a fact,” Mollway said before continuing the hearing to Sept. 9.

The case is one of Hawaii’s biggest human trafficking cases in recent years and was handled by federal prosecutors out of Washington, D.C.

Sou family members, about two dozen farm workers and two Buddhist monks dressed in saffron-colored robes packed the courtroom for Monday’s hearing, which began at 1:45 p.m. and dragged on for five hours.

Near the beginning of the hearing, the judge allowed the defense to show a 10-minute video made up of roughly-shot testimonials featuring several farm workers and a Buddhist monk who described the Thai immigrants’ living conditions as comfortable and said that they were free to come and go as they pleased.

“They did not enslave or oppress anyone…Their role in this entire conspiracy was extremely minimal,” said Eric Seitz, representing Mike Sou. Seitz asked the judge to consider house arrest instead of prison time. The crime carries a sentence of up to five years in federal prison.

Mollway didn’t buy that argument and brought up the proverbial case of the getaway driver who works with bank robbers: The driver is still guilty of conspiring to rob the bank even if he didn’t personally steal the money.

Workers told prosecutors they were fed moldy food. Some of them lived in mobile storage containers on the farm (not mobile homes). The workers were duped by a recruiter in Thailand who collected $16,000 from them in exchange for setting them up with a three-year contract farmworker job in the U.S.

When the judge asked the Sous directly whether they understood that they had pleaded guilty, the brothers twice went into private conference with their lawyers before affirming that they stood by their guilty pleas.

Complicating matters more, Alec Sou’s attorney, Howard Luke, gave the judge a binder filled with paystubs to show that the workers were not coerced: They had in fact been paid $9.42 an hour, 40 hours a week.

“A lot of these workers got paid way above minimum wage,” Alec Sou told the judge.

Mollway became visibly frustrated and suggested that the Sous appeared to be saying they weren’t guilty of the actions detailed in the plea agreement.

“What is the factual basis for the guilty plea? Everything I’ve heard today undercuts the plea agreement,” she said. “I have this chipping away of the factual basis (for the guilty plea)…In the end, what is it that you think you’re guilty of?”

Mollway ordered the defense lawyers to write for her separate memorandums outlining the factual basis for each of the Sou brothers’ guilty pleas. She set a deadline of one week.

“This is pretty unprecedented,” said Clare Hanusz, a lawyer representing 27 of the victims. “I think (the court) needs to set a strong example for the other farmers that human trafficking is taken seriously by the government and will be punished.”

An agriculture expert wrote an op-ed in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser saying Hawaii’s depends on the Sou brothers’ keeping the farm running. Two former governors and the president of the Hawaii Foodbank have also supporting the Sous to Hollway, urging her to consider their good standing in the community in her sentencing.