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SEATTLE - A Covington, Washington man accused of throwing a coconut-sized rock at an endangered seal in Hawaii was released by a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday.
Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38, was ordered to return to Hawaii to face criminal charges of harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal. He must attend a court appearance in Honolulu on May 27.
The backstory:
The charges stem from an incident on May 5, where witnesses recorded a man hurling a rock at a monk seal along the shoreline of Lahaina, Maui, narrowly missing. When bystanders warned him they were calling police, Lytvynchuk reportedly said he "did not care and was ‘rich’ enough to pay any fines."
Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk's DOL photo and a still of a video allegedly showing him throw a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal.
The video quickly went viral on social media and even prompted a response from Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, advocating for the prosecution and saying, "Let me be clear, this is not the kind of visitor we welcome on Maui."
The Hawaiian monk seal is protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, as only 1,600 remain in the wild. The seal was playing with a log when Lytvynchuk allegedly threw the rock towards its head, causing the "animal to abruptly alter its behavior" and appear "largely immobile" for an extended period, according to court documents.
Lytvynchuk was arrested by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) special agents at his Covington home on Wednesday. He faced a judge at the federal courthouse in Seattle on Thursday, with his public defender saying he's already hired an attorney in Hawaii.
If convicted, Lytvynchuk faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for each charge and a maximum fine of $70,000.
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The Source: Information in this story came from the Associated Press and previous FOX 13 Seattle reporting.