Ridge Alkonis Launched by U.S. a Month After Switch From Japan

Lt. Ridge Alkonis, a Navy officer, was launched from jail on Friday, a few month after he was transferred to the USA following his conviction in Japan for inflicting a lethal site visitors accident, a case that had strained relations between the 2 international locations.

He had served half of his three-year sentence in Japan and was anticipated to serve the remainder of it in the USA, with an American company deciding the size of his incarceration. That company, the U.S. Parole Fee, dominated on Friday that he had already served a long-enough sentence. He was launched the identical day, in keeping with the Bureau of Prisons web site.

A lawyer for the Lieutenant’s household declined to remark.

In Might 2021, Lieutenant Alkonis, who was stationed on the Yokosuka naval base south of Tokyo, was driving a Toyota car after visiting Mount Fuji together with his spouse and three kids. Lieutenant Alkonis “fell asleep” on the wheel, in keeping with an accident report obtained by The New York Occasions. His silver Toyota veered off the highway and collided with 5 vehicles exterior a restaurant, fatally crushing two individuals.

Lieutenant Alkonis pleaded responsible to negligent driving in an effort to obtain a suspended sentence. He additionally paid the victims’ households $1.6 million and wrote apology letters. At trial he mentioned he had been affected by “acute mountain sickness” simply earlier than the accident, however a decide disagreed. The victims’ households requested the decide to render a “severe penalty.”

Lieutenant Alkonis’s household and supporters insisted that he had suffered from altitude illness and been denied due course of in a international courtroom system that gave little weight to his responsible plea and repeated apologies. They sought assist from President Biden and different lawmakers for his switch and launch.

Mr. Biden was personally concerned within the talks to safe the discharge of Lieutenant Alkonis, administration officers mentioned final 12 months. The conversations had been extremely delicate, given American officers’ need to keep away from insulting the Japanese authorities by suggesting that they didn’t respect the nation’s judicial system. Lieutenant Alkonis was launched underneath a prisoner switch program between the 2 international locations.

Mike Ives and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.