Alex Harimoto

ROGERS CITY — At his pre-trial in the 89th District Court on Tuesday, Alex Harimoto, 25, agreed to move his preliminary examination 60 days out. The original preliminary examination date was set for Aug. 12.

Harimoto is the former Rogers City Main Street and Rogers City Downtown Development Authority Executive Director. He was arrested and arraigned on June 30 on three charges of first degree criminal sexual conduct relationship and three charges of second degree criminal sexual conduct relationship. The date of the offense was March 5, 2024.

On Tuesday, Harimoto was represented by Attorney Jesse Williams. Alcona County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Weichel represented the people of the State of Michigan. Presque Isle County Prosecuting Attorney Zakary McLennan recused himself from the case due to a conflict of interest.

Williams told Judge Michael Ekdahl that they are still waiting on a large amount of discovery before the case can go to preliminary examination.

Harimoto agreed to waive his right to have his preliminary examination within 21 days of his arraignment.

Weichel also said that there are discovery issues to take care of. He reviewed the Michigan State Police file and realized that they did not have a number of items. He is working on copying those items and getting them to the defense counsel.

There is quite a bit of information to review, including phone downloads, Weichel said, and on behalf of the people he would not be opposed to the 60 day adjournment.

Weichel is retiring Sept. 1 and his replacement, Elizabeth Reed, will be starting Aug. 1, he said. She will have some time to get up to speed on the case before Weichel’s departure.

Harimoto’s next court date is set for 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 30 for a preliminary examination.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.