Officer: Woman fled in stolen truck, drove dangerously, evading traffic stop

Kihei resident is arrested; drugs found in vehicle

WAILUKU -- A woman driving a stolen vehicle sped up, went into the median and ran a red light on Haleakala Highway when a police officer tried to stop the vehicle, the officer testified Monday.

He identified the driver as Supiesi Tongi, 24, of Kihei, who was arrested the afternoon of Dec. 28 after the vehicle was located in the Piihana Farms area of Wailuku.

Testifying Monday at a preliminary hearing for Tongi, Crime Reduction Unit officer Daron Sugiyama said he spotted the 2012 Toyota Tacoma truck at Mohala Place and Old Haleakala Highway after receiving tracking information about the Ohana Pool & Spa vehicle at 12:18 p.m. Dec. 28.

Sugiyama, who was heading uphill on the highway, said he turned his unmarked police vehicle around to follow the stolen truck after it turned left from Mohala Place onto the highway to head downhill.

After the truck turned left onto Haleakala Highway and was heading toward Haliimaile, Sugiyama said he was three to four car lengths behind when he activated the lights and siren on his police car to try to make a traffic stop.

"The vehicle actually accelerated and refused to stop," he said.

With about 15 cars stopped at the red light at the Haliimaile Road intersection, Sugiyama said he decided it would be unsafe to keep trying to stop the stolen vehicle and turned off his lights and siren. The stolen vehicle continued on, maneuvering left into the median just before the intersection and hitting the driver's side mirror off a stopped vehicle before going through the red light, then going back onto the highway and speeding downhill, Sugiyama said.

A couple of hours later, at about 2 p.m., police were notified that the stolen truck had been tracked to a dirt road at Piihana Farms near Eha Street, Sugiyama said.

He found the truck with its driver's door open and the engine running.

Officers checked the nearby area and found Tongi and an 18-year-old woman who had been a passenger in the truck, Sugiyama said. He said the passenger-side mirror of the truck was gone, and its exterior locks and ignition were damaged.

In the center front seat, there was a tote bag containing a bulbous glass pipe holding suspected crystal methamphetamine, Sugiyama said.

He weighed the drug at 0.14 gram.

The passenger said the tote bag belonged to Tongi, Sugiyama said.

Police records show the passenger was arrested and released pending further investigation.

In arguing the evidence supported the charges against Tongi, Deputy Prosecutor Joshua Kent said she tried to flee from the officer as he tried to make a traffic stop.

"She did so by operating the vehicle in reckless disregard of the safety of other persons, not only by accelerating but also traveling through the center median of the highway and actually colliding into a vehicle that was stopped there," Kent said.

Wailuku District Judge Kirstin Hamman ruled there was sufficient evidence to support charges of unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, first-degree resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle and third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug against Tongi. She is also charged with leaving the scene of a collision involving damage to a vehicle or property, possessing drug paraphernalia and second-degree resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle.

Tongi was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center pending her arraignment Jan. 13 in 2nd Circuit Court.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.