HOUGHTON — The preliminary examination for a Calumet Township man in connection to a methamphetamine operation has been postponed again.

25-year-old Dustin Lee Palosaari was arrested in early May as part of an Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team (UPSET) operation. Palosaari was charged with one count of delivery/manufacture of meth and one count of maintaining a drug house.

Palosaari’s preliminary examination was originally scheduled for May 28, but moved to June 25. It was once again postponed in court on Wednesday, as Palosaari is currently in a treatment program at the Phoenix House addiction treatment center in Houghton County.

Palosaari was removed from the treatment house once before for use of THC, but has since been readmitted to restart the program. During a Zoom appearance, Palosaari said he’s working with counselors at the center and is learning a lot.

“I think where Mr. Palosaari is is where he needs to be right now,” said Palosaari’s lawyer, David Gemignani. “And I hope there’s no more slip ups, I hope there’s a successful graduation, and I hope that things turn out for the better. If that does happen, I think he’ll be in a better state of mind to resolve this at that point rather than right now.”

“Those folks at the Phoenix House, they are dedicated to seeing you through to a better life at the end of it,” Judge Nicholas Daavitela told Palosaari. “It does nobody any good, you especially, for me to throw you in jail …I want to see you succeed kid, so please put your heart, your mind, and your soul into it.”