Ambrozuk pleads innocent

By CHERY SABOL

Bond was set at $250,000

The Daily Inter Lake

Jaroslaw "Jerry" Ambrozuk told a judge Thursday that the girl who drowned when he crashed a plane 24 years ago into Bitterroot Lake was the love of his life and her death was accidental.

Ambrozuk is charged with negligent homicide in the death of Dianne Babcock, who was 18 in 1982 when the two flew from Canada to Montana.

"We planned to elope and run away from home. … It was a consensual decision we made over a period of months," Ambrozuk said at a bond hearing before District Judge Kitty Curtis in Kalispell.

No one knew that the teenage couple had planned to put down the rented plane in the lake and disappear into the United States. In fact, local officials doubted that happened until they pulled out the plane and Babcock's body from beneath 244 feet of water.

The plane was found because, days after the crash, Ambrozuk called a friend in Canada and told him that Babcock had been unable to get out of her seat belt before the plane sank and she drowned. He told his friend the plane was still in the lake west of Kalispell.

He did that because he wanted people to find her so she could "have a proper burial" and so her family would know what happened to her, he said.

But County Attorney Ed Corrigan said that from a transcript of the call, Ambrozuk didn't sound like a grieving man who had lost "the love of his life."

He read Ambrozuk's own words to him from the transcript:

"I went because I was going, and she went because I guess she was in love with me or something like that.

"I wanted to get away, that's all. … She tagged along," according to the transcript.

Corrigan read what Ambrozuk said about Babcock, whom he called "Skinny."

"She always said, 'I can't live without you,' and all this shit," Corrigan read.

Ambrozuk responded, "It was a terrible thing.

"I said, 'I felt like half of me died,' if you read that part," Ambrozuk told Corrigan.

Ambrozuk said the past 24 years had been difficult.

Right after the crash, he went to New York for a short time, he said. He moved to Texas, where he changed his name and prospered.

Corrigan wondered at Ambrozuk's definition of difficult.

Ambrozuk said he has about $500,000 worth of property and vehicles valued at about $100,000, including a Dodge Viper, for which he said he paid $71,000. He also said he has about $100,000 in a Merrill Lynch account.

Ambrozuk earned a college degree and started his own business.

"I have a software-development company," Ambrozuk said. It once employed as many as 60 people.

"You have held up remarkably well over the last hard 24 years," Corrigan remarked.

The point of discussing Ambrozuk's finances was to give Curtis information for Ambrozuk's bond.

He has been held without bond in the jail. His arrest warrant listed a $20,000 bond.

Ambrozuk's attorney, Patrick Sherlock, said he would like to see that amount reinstated. The warrant listed the current negligent homicide charge, plus a felony-theft count related to the rented plane. Ambrozuk's family paid for the plane, and that charge later was dropped.

Corrigan argued for a $500,000 bond. Ambrozuk has assets worth about three-quarters of a million dollars, Corrigan said, and his father is willing to help post bond.

Curtis set bail at $250,000.

Earlier in the day, Ambrozuk pleaded innocent to the charge against him. Curtis set a March 12 trial date for District Judge Stewart Stadler's court.

Sherlock said the case "could be" resolved before then, presumably with a plea agreement.

But Ambrozuk's testimony at the bond hearing didn't have quite the tone that Corrigan had hoped to hear from him.

Corrigan has considered recommending a suspended sentence in the case, although he hasn't yet heard what Babcock's family's wishes are.

Thursday, he said that, "After the attitude and self-serving statements today, I'm keeping an open mind.

"My hope is that he would plead [guilty] and acknowledge responsibility for that girl's death. … If not, we go to trial.

"A lot of what this office will recommend depends on how [Ambrozuk] approaches the case," Corrigan said.

Sherlock said that no one wants to see Ambrozuk go to prison for an accident that happened when he was a teenager.

Ambrozuk was arrested Aug. 30 in Plano, Texas, after a tip to Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont.

Sherlock said Ambrozuk is doing well in the Flathead County jail, where his family from Canada has visited him, Sherlock said. He said he doesn't believe that Ambrozuk has spoken to Babcock's family.

Officials have said that Ambrozuk may face federal charges for being in the country illegally all these years. He reportedly provided falsified documents for a passport he used to travel to Japan for his computer-software business.

His story has attracted attention from Texas, Canadian, and national U.S. media.

On Thursday, representatives from NBC's "Dateline" and CBS's "48 Hours" were in the courtroom.

A story about Ambrozuk was published in The Washington Post this week.