WAILUKU >> A 39-year-old Maui man who tried to elude authorities by swimming for about 45 minutes in the ocean is scheduled to appear in Wailuku District Court at 1:30 p.m. Monday for a preliminary hearing. Swimming fugitive
gets court dateBy Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comRoy Koyanagi Jr. appeared in court yesterday on an auto theft charge. He was being held in lieu of $5,000 bail.
A police officer driving in South Maui noticed a car had license plates that were partially taped to block identification Wednesday morning and found out the plates did not belong to the vehicle, Police Sgt. Stacey Yamashita said.
Yamashita said the driver and two other occupants fled when the patrol officer approached the car after it had pulled over on the side of North Kihei Road in Kealia.
The officer pursued the driver as he ran along the beach, then into the water, and called the Coast Guard and county lifeguards for assistance at about 7 a.m.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Richard Magana said with help from police, he and three crew members aboard a 24-foot inflatable boat found Koyanagi swimming about a half-mile off shore.
"He was swimming. I don't know where he was going," Magana said.
Magana said they tried to get close to Koyanagi, who kept swimming away from them and occasionally ducking under the boat.
"He just laughed and kept on swimming," Magana said.
One of the crew members pulled Koyanagi aboard, as he surfaced on the side of the boat, and he was handcuffed and turned over to the police, authorities said.