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A Navy officer jailed in Japan over a deadly car crash that killed two
Japanese citizens has been transferred into U.S. custody and is being
returned to the United States, his family said Thursday.

Lt. Ridge Alknois had been serving a three-year prison sentence after
pleading guilty to the negligent driving deaths of an elderly woman and
her son-in-law in May 2021.

"After 507 days, Lt. Ridge Alkonis is on his way home to the United
States. We are encouraged by Ridge's transfer back to the United States
but cannot celebrate until Ridge has been reunited with his family," the family, based in Dana Point, California, said in a statement to The
Associated Press.

It was unclear where in the U.S. Alkonis is heading or whether upon his
arrival in the country he might be required to spend any additional time
behind bars under the terms of his transfer from Japan.

"We appreciate the efforts of the U.S. government to effect this transfer
and are glad that an impartial set of judiciary eyes will review his case
for the first time," the family said in a statement.

"When the Biden administration is presented with the complete set of facts
and circumstances surrounding the case, we're confident they will promptly recognize the absurdity of Ridge's conviction," the family said.

Alkonis' family has said the naval officer abruptly lost consciousness in
the car after a lunch and ice cream excursion to Mount Fuji with his wife
and children, causing him to slump over behind the wheel after suffering
acute mountain sickness. U.S. Navy doctors also concluded that Alkonis had experienced acute mountain sickness, which is a medical emergency. But
Japanese prosecutors and the judge who sentenced him contend he fell
asleep while drowsy, shirking a duty to pull over immediately. Alkonis was never medically examined by authorities in Japan.

"But he wasn't tired," Brittany Alkonis, the Navy officer's wife, told CBS
News after her husband's conviction and just before he was due to begin
his prison sentence in 2022.

"He was fine and alert," she recalled of his state leading up to the
crash. "He had even noticed that I was at risk of getting car sick and
told me to be careful."

At the time, Alkonis' wife said she believed political intervention from
the United States would help keep him out of jail. But back then, the U.S. Embassy had only said it was watching his case.

In the spring of 2021, after a period of land-based assignments, the
Southern California native was preparing for a deployment as a department
head on the USS Benfold, a missile destroyer.

On May 29, 2021, with the assignment looming, his family set out for an excursion of Mount Fuji hiking and sightseeing.

They had climbed a portion of the mountain and were back in the car,
heading to lunch and ice cream near the base of Mount Fuji. Alkonis was
talking with his daughter, then 7, when his family says he suddenly fell unconscious behind the wheel. He was so out of it, they say, that neither
his daughter's screams to wake up nor the impact of the collision roused
him.

After the crash near Fujinomiya, he was arrested by Japanese authorities
and held for 26 days in solitary confinement at a police detention
facility, interrogated multiple times a day and was not given a medical treatment or evaluation, according to a statement of facts provided by a
family spokesman. That statement says that when American authorities
arrived to take Alkonis into custody and return him to a U.S. base, he
already was held by the Japanese.

He was indicted on a charge of negligent driving, resulting in death, and
was sentenced to three years in prison.

After the sentencing, Alkonis' family had sought to keep the case in the
public spotlight, including by gathering outside the White House.
President Joe Biden also raised the case during a meeting last May with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Alkonis is a specialist in underseas warfare and acoustic engineering who
at the time of the crash had spent nearly seven years in Japan as a
civilian volunteer and naval officer.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/navy-lt-ridge-alkonis-jailed-japan-3-years- deadly-car-crash-us-custody/?intcid=CNR-01-0623

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