Yesterday Judge Eric Fleming once again postponed the plea hearing for Troy McAlister, the man who killed Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Platt in 2020 while fleeing a robbery in a stolen car. The next hearing is set for Nov. 10 at 1:30 p.m.
During yesterday’s hearing, Judge Fleming took attorneys to his chambers for an off-the-record discussion. Fleming also commented on the large number of people on the Zoom call, most of whom were there to support Hanako’s mother, Hiroko Abe.
Judge Fleming postponed last week’s Oct. 5 hearing to give Assistant District Attorney Kourney Bell another week to discuss the plea deal with Abe, who only speaks Japanese and only heard the DA’s office had accepted a plea deal the night before on Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. Pacific Time.
Immediately after the Oct. 5 hearing, Abe sent a list of questions through Tasha Yorozu, an attorney who doesn’t represent her but voluntarily translates for her, but Bell waited until 2 a.m. Japan time the morning before the Oct. 14 hearing to contact Abe. Rather than answer the questions in email form as Abe had requested, he asked for a Zoom meeting, which Abe refused, stating it was too late and too complicated with time zone differences and her language barrier. As she had explained to Bell previously, written answers are easier for her to understand through a translation app.
At yesterday’s hearing, Yorozu translated for Abe, expressing her concern that Bell hadn’t reached out the entire week and did not adhere to Abe’s request for written answers to her questions about the plea for her daughter’s killer. Judge Fleming ordered Bell to send the answers to Abe in writing no later than Nov. 6.
It was also revealed that during the nearly six years the case has been ongoing, the DA’s office never assigned a court certified Japanese translator. Since Yorozu isn’t court certified, a plea deal can’t be made until Bell assigns a translator who is. Judge Fleming asked Bell if he would have a court certified translator for the Nov. 10 hearing, to which Bell answered he would.
