Police-punching fugitive arrested near San Diego

A Tustin man who punched a Costa Mesa police officer during his arrest in 2006 and escaped sheriff’s deputies last week was recaptured Wednesday, prosecutors said.

Mark Georgantas, 46, was arrested by the Pacific southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force in a Chula Vista parking lot in San Diego County.

Georgantas was free on $50,000 bail last week, sitting in his credit card fraud trial, when he told the court he had to use the restroom. He never returned and was convicted by a jury in his absence.

This isn’t the first time he’s escaped custody.

In September 2003, Georgantas and another prisoner at James Musick Facility in Irvine used their bedding to hop a barb-wired fence in the middle of the night and escape through a storm drain. Police captured him in Los Angeles County following a high-speed car chase.

Georgantas was shipped to Orange County Jail and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

He faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 27.

— Joseph Serna