Pre-trial
On January 24, Brown hired two new defense attorneys, Michael Griffith and Toshimitsu Takaesu. Griffith was a New York attorney who had previously represented Marines in Okinawa. Takaesu was a former Okinawa chief prosecutor. Both were described as "outspoken critics of Japan's legal system". The first week of March, another attorney hired by Brown filed a habeas corpus petition with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia claiming that the legality of Brown's incarceration was open to question due to what Brown claimed was the inherent unfairness of the Japanese judicial system. The U.S. court dismissed the motion on March 12, citing jurisdictional issues.
Throughout the trial, Brown wrote numerous public missives about what he felt was the unfairness and corruption of the Japanese justice system and accusing the local Okinawan government of pursuing a political agenda in the prosecution of his case. Brown's letters were posted on his family's website and informally distributed throughout Okinawa's U.S. military population. Brown and his family also wrote many letters to U.S. politicians and government officials complaining of Brown's treatment by Japanese authorities and actively encouraged other U.S. military members and U.S. citizens to do the same.
On March 13, an Okinawan newspaper reported that the JNP had matched DNA taken from saliva on the victim's upper body with DNA in a blood sample obtained from Brown during the investigation. Brown was again denied bail on March 17. Takaesu blamed the anonymous report about the DNA evidence in the newspaper as the reason for the bail denial and criticized the Naha District Prosecutor's Office for not including the DNA evidence in the evidence list submitted before the trial was scheduled to begin. In reply, Junichi Okumura, a Naha District deputy chief prosecutor stated, "Here in Japan, unlike the United States, there is no problem if evidence is submitted later". Brown was granted a ¥10 million bail (approximately US$100,000, c.2003) by the Naha court on May 13 but he was restricted to Camp Courtney for the duration of the trial.
Brown's family hired Gene Warfield, an American ex-special forces soldier who had lived in Okinawa for 17 years, as a consultant to assist them in "looking into the allegations levied against Michael (Brown)." On the evening of May 7, as Warfield, his Japanese wife, and daughter arrived at a restaurant on Okinawa, a man attacked Warfield with a knife, injuring him slightly. Warfield described the man's attack as "professional". The JNP investigated, but no arrests were made.
Read more about this topic: Michael Brown Okinawa Assault Incident