Corruption Defendant Dennis Mitsunaga Injured In Jail, Delaying Trial
Dennis Mitsunaga’s attorney said the injury supports her prior argument that her elderly client shouldn’t have been detained.
A high-profile bribery trial involving businessman Dennis Mitsunaga and former Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro was delayed on Monday after Mitsunaga sustained an injury in custody, his attorney said.
Mitsunaga was taken to the emergency room on Monday morning after he fell and cut his head, his lawyer Nina Marino told the court. He was supposed to be seen by medical staff on Friday but was not, and has not received medications he was supposed to take, according to Marino. The attorney said she didn’t know the extent of the injury or whether her client had lost consciousness.
Mitsunaga, 82, has been held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu since April 19.
The former CEO of the engineering firm Mitsunaga & Associaties Inc. is accused of conspiring with his firm’s attorney and employees to steer campaign donations to Kaneshiro so the prosecutor would charge an ex-employee of the company with theft. The trial has been underway since March.
Mitsunaga was previously free on bail but was ordered into custody after federal prosecutors accused him of trying to influence the testimony of a witness in his ongoing corruption trial. Mitsunaga was arrested for suspected witness tampering and obstruction of justice, and a grand jury has convened to consider an additional indictment.
At a hearing last month to review the terms of Mitsunaga’s pretrial release, federal prosecutors accused Mitsunaga of trying to “destroy the integrity of this trial.” He violated a court order that prohibited him from making contact with trial witnesses, and his actions were 鈥渋ntentional, brazen and defiant,” prosecutor Andrew Chiang told the court.
Under those circumstances, there is a legal presumption in favor of detention, Chiang said. He argued no conditions short of putting Mitsunaga in jail would protect the community from the defendant’s 鈥渄eliberate attempt to pollute鈥 the court鈥檚 truth-seeking process.
Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins agreed, ordering Mitsuanga to be detained.
On Monday, Marino noted that she opposed Mitsunaga’s detention last month, citing his age and multiple health conditions.
Mitsunaga has only one lung because of a bout with cancer in the 1990s, she said last month, and has a condition that affects his esophagus, among other issues. He has seen doctors in recent months for problems including high blood pressure and dizzy spells. At the time of the hearing, Mitsunaga had spent a weekend in jail, and incarceration was already physically affecting him, Marino said.
鈥淚 raised this very exact thing happening at the detention hearing, that there was a very great potential that due to his age and medical conditions the trial would be delayed, and I hate to be right, but I was,” she told Judge Timothy Burgess on Monday. “I鈥檓 obviously very upset right now, your honor.”
At the detention hearing last month, Chiang responded to Marino’s concerns.
鈥淲hat the court must consider is did his age and health condition stop him from committing a grievous violation of the court鈥檚 conditions of release?” he said. “I think the answer is it did not.”
In light of the injury, Marino said she plans to file a motion for reconsideration of her client’s detention.
The trial is tentatively scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday, according to the court calendar.
