Editor’s note: This column is being reprinted from his blog, iLind.net, with the author’s permission.

There has been a low-key kerfuffle over a motion filed on behalf of the late Mike Miske’s mother in the government’s civil foreclosure lawsuit that seeks to seize all of Miske’s property because it was derived from or used to carry out his racketeering activities.

A post here on April 1 noted a claim to Miske’s property, in opposition to the government’s forfeiture demand, had been filed by San Francisco attorney Edward M. Burch on behalf of Miske’s revocable living trust, with a separate claim on behalf of Miske’s granddaughter, who is the sole beneficiary of the trust. 

The girl is not named in the court filing because she is a minor, and is only identified by her initials.

The latter claim was signed by Maydeen Stancil, the mother of Mike Miske and John Stancil, and accompanied by a motion to appoint her as the legal “next friend” or guardian ad litem for Miske’s granddaughter, who is Maydeen Stancil’s biological great-granddaughter. The court can appoint a guardian in litigation involving a minor child in order to protect their interests and act for them, for example to compromise or settle a case.

The court has wide discretion to make such an appointment “in the absence of a duly appointed representative.”

The child’s father, Caleb Miske, Mike Miske’s only son, died in March 2016. Her mother, Delia Fabro-Miske, has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for her role in the Miske affair.

The problem in this motion is that the child’s maternal grandfather had already been granted guardianship by Family Court, which Burch acknowledged in a subsequent court filing. Burch said he had not yet seen the paperwork and had been unable to verify the appointment. Some legal observers said it looked like Burch arrived and tried to bigfoot into the case, but hadn’t done his homework on the guardian issue.

Last week, Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield denied the motion to appoint Maydeen Stancil as guardian, but without prejudice, allowing Burch to refile a motion “that indicates whether (Miske’s granddaughter) has a duly appointed representative.”

In any case, I doubt I am the only one who would question whether Maydeen Stancil would be a suitable guardian for Miske’s granddaughter based on her very public parental track record.

Mike Miske, her oldest son, died after being convicted by a federal jury on 13 counts of racketeering and related charges including murder, kidnapping, and assault. He had been facing a mandatory life sentence. 

Her next son, John Stancil, 37, was a key player in his brother’s criminal organization and was sentenced in February to 20 years in federal prison, the maximum sentence for racketeering conspiracy. During much of that time, he was living at home. 

Stancil admitted he had supplied the chemical chloropicrin that was used in chemical attacks on two nightclubs in 2017, and had personally released the same chemical in another nightclub in an earlier attack. Those involved in the 2017 attacks picked up bottles containing chloropicrin from Stancil at his family’s home in Waimanalo. He also took part in a number of robberies of drug dealers and others, as well as several assaults, including one that ended in the death of a 24-year-old associate.

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And Maydeen Stancil’s youngest son, Cody, 36, has had several brushes with the law. Most were minor, including several arrests for petty theft from a department store, and a citation for being present in an illegal game room in Waimanalo when it was raided.

But he pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery, a class B felony, in 2017, and was granted a deferred acceptance of a guilty plea. He managed to retain the DAGP despite four arrests during the four-year deferral period, including at least one positive drug test. 

In one colorful incident, Cody was arrested at 3:30 a.m. on a Friday in June 2018, blocking traffic on Kona Street near Keeaumoku while following a woman and yelling profanities at her. 

“Stancil was yelling at the top of his lungs causing a ruckus,” the responding officer reported, noting that Stancil appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Stancil followed the woman out to the corner of Kapiolani and Keʻeaumoku, fronting Ala Moana Shopping Center, where he walked “in the middle of the road blocking traffic again with cars honking their horns, yelling and screaming profanities,” according to a police report on the incident. “Cars were stopping in the middle of the road due to Stancil blocking the roadways from his yelling.” When told he needed to calm down and get out of the road, Stancil responded to the officer: “Fuck you, I do what I like.”

When booked after his arrest, Stancil said he was a plumber’s helper at Miske’s Kamaʻāina Plumbing and was living in the Stancil family home in Waimanalo.

He was charged with disorderly conduct in a Honolulu weed and seed criminal complaint, and was bailed out a week later by a man Miske was paying $100 a day to run errands for several of his companies.

The man also happened to be the brother of one of Miske’s several girlfriends. Attorney Alen Kaneshiro, who appeared in court for a number of Miske associates, negotiated a “no contest” plea in exchange for prosecutors’ agreement to reduce the offense to a simple violation, apparently in part so that it didn’t affect Cody Stancil’s deferred guilty plea in the robbery case.

Although there is no evidence Maydeen Stancil condoned her son’s criminal activities, there is also no evidence in the record indicating she made any attempt to intervene while they were living at home and using the family house as a home base. 

In any case, it just seems to me there are plenty of grounds to question whether she has the judgment to qualify for appointment as a guardian in this case.

Read the decision below: