Man calls police for assistance after allegedly evading them

A Mountain View man who was charged with a litany of offenses after allegedly evading Kona police in a stolen car and then calling them to request being rescued has several court dates facing him.

A preliminary hearing for 30-year-old Terran Kaleiwahea Jr. was begun on Friday on charges of first-degree theft for auto theft, unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle and resisting an order to stop. Four police officers testified. Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Masser then requested a continuance of the hearing, saying there were witnesses unavailable, and Deputy Public Defender Rachel Thompson objected.

Kona District Judge Joanna Sokolow granted the continuance of the hearing to June 20 and freed Kaleiwahea on supervised release, a form of cashless bail.

Kaleiwahea also has a court date June 8 in Hilo on three counts of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and another on June 5 in Kona for missing a May 11 date on another matter.

According to police Kona patrol officers responded at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a reckless driver traveling south on Queen Kaahumanu Highway, near Kaiminani Drive in Kailua-Kona. Officers spotted the vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed, weaving in and out of traffic, and continuing south. They later found the vehicle parked unoccupied off of Hina Lani Street in in Kailua-Kona and observed a man in the distance running in thick brush.

Later that same evening, police dispatchers received a distress call from a man reporting that he was lost in the brush along the area of Maiau Street and Hina Lani Street.

Officers swept the area and found Kaleiwahea in the 73-4100 block of Ulu Wini Place. They escorted Kaleiwahea out of the bushes, and he was tended to by Hawaii Fire Department medics.

After police identified Kaleiwahea, they determined that he had outstanding warrants for his arrest, as well as an all-points bulletin for theft and property offenses. Responding officers also noted Kaleiwahea matched the description of the alleged reckless driver previously witnessed fleeing into the brush.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.