HONOLULU (KHON2) — A recent filing in Federal Court has asked that accused crime boss Michael Miske and five of his co-defendants have their trial moved out of Hawai’i.

Defense attorneys for Michael and his co-defendants filed for a motion for a ‘change of venue’.

The attorneys have used the help of an expert that identifies jury bias and who helped with identifying an untainted jury in the Kealoha trial.

The expert said that he conducted a survey that revealed that half of the possible jury pool has heard of the case and that of those identified there were nearly 90% who already believed Miske to be guilty.

Las Vegas was another location identified by the expert since he found that there is almost no prior knowledge of the case in that pool of potential jurors.

At this point, the request is pending before a federal judge

UPDATE: The top official in the U.S. Justice Department in Hawai’i has filed notice that she is taking on the case against accused crime boss Michael Miske.

In a federal court today, Feb. 7, U.S. Attorney Clare Connors filed a “Notice of Appearance” that said she will be coming before the court on behalf of the prosecution.

KHON2 asked the Department of Justice for comment on the unusual move.

A spokesperson said that “any attorney in this office is authorized to appear. We do not publicly discuss reasons any particular attorney, including the U.S. Attorney.”

Miske faces dozens of charges including murder, murder for hire and obstruction of justice.