A federal judge denied bail Friday for Jesse Yoshino, who will remain in custody along with two others accused of extortion involving The Shack Waikiki restaurant.
The other defendants, Curtis Swanson and Tory Winward, both 44, were denied bail earlier this week. The three were arrested Monday.
The government says the three used threats and violence to force out the orignal owners of the restaurant.
The FBI says it has video of Yoshino, 30, punching owner Brendan Burchfiel in an unprovoked attack in the restaurant last November.
Yoshino’s lawyer says Yoshino denies he is the assailant in the video. And court officials who interviewed Yoshino before Friday’s bail hearing said Yoshino denies any involvement in the attack.
However, federal prosecutor Thomas Brady said Swanson has identified Yoshino as the person in the video and said he pulled Yoshino off Burchfiel. Brady also said Yoshino approached Burchfiel at the restaurant in January, shook his hand and told him the attack was not his call.
Brady said when police and the FBI arrested Yoshino Monday, he told them he had not been calling the shots at the Waikiki restaurant, that Winward and Swanson were uncle figures to him, and he didn’t want to be a snitch.
Yoshino has no criminal convictions.
He went to trial in state court last December for third-degree assault stemming from an incident at Koko Head District Park in April 2009.
Yoshino told police the alleged victim was about to assault his father so he stepped in between the two men. He said the alleged victim tripped over a utility panel sticking out of the ground.
Brady said Yoshino’s father and the other man were arguing over parking when Yoshino pushed the man to the ground. He said the man suffered a 1-inch cut on his arm.
The jury found Yoshino not guilty.
Brady said Yoshino was involved in two other incidents, one in which he threatened another man at Koko Head District Park and the other in which he told police he punched out more than one person at McCully Shopping Center. None of the alleged victims in the incidents filed police complaints.
