A 38-year-old Washington man has been arrested for allegedly throwing a rock at a monk seal on the shores of Maui in early May, an incident that was caught on video and quickly went viral.
The monk seal is well-known to locals who have named her “Lani.”
Special agents with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration arrested Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk near Seattle on Wednesday, May 13. Lytvynchuk, 38, is a resident of Covington, Wash., roughly 30 miles southeast from Seattle.
On May 5, bystanders took video of a man walking along the beach in the Lahaina area of Maui as he followed a monk seal, Lani, in the nearby shallow water. The seal was swimming and pushing a log. The man then took a large rock — one witness described it as the size of a coconut — and threw it at the seal, nearly hitting its head. The seal was startled and reared out of the water. Lani was motionless for a time, avoiding the shore, after the scare.
It’s the dumb thing where they have to cover their ass legally. If the guy goes to court and somehow wins by convincing them it “slipped” from his hand then he could turn around and sue all the outlets who said he threw it
That’s not it at all
As of right now he is totally innocent. It is on the prosecution to prove that he commited a crime.
What? No. He’s presumed innocent in the court of law. Whether they find him innocent or guilty doesn’t change him being innocent or guilty. You can be guilty and found innocent or innocent and found guilty. The opinion of the court only matters in the justice system, not in public opinion or reality.
I imagine the more logical argument would be “I threw the rock, but it wasn’t at the seal” rather than “it slipped out of my hand at a high velocity”