08/04/2007

News / Ukrainian family wants daughter's remains after fatal June crash in Dells; consul general pleads case

The Ukrainian consul general in Chicago pleaded in Columbia County Court on Friday that the body of a teen killed in a Wisconsin Dells car crash be released for proper burial in the Ukraine.

The consul general, Vasyl Korzachenko, appeared at the bond hearing for 19-year-old exchange student Andrii Pomaz, who is charged with the death of his fiance in a June car crash.

Korzachenko sat silently through much of the proceedings, but a pro bono attorney, Julian E. Kulas, spoke on his behalf, as well as on behalf of the parents of the victim, 19-year-old Olga Ivanenko. Kulas said the consul general had received letters from the girl's parents, who live in the Ukrainian city of Herson, stating that Pomaz and Ivanenko were engaged to be married, and that the family was distraught that they had not been able to bury their daughter.

"They seem to be under the impression their daughter's body is being held imprisoned," Kulas told Columbia County Court Commissioner Charles F. Church. "What is the necessity to keep her dead body?"

All five Ukrainian students in the car had summer jobs in the Wisconsin Dells area.

Pomaz, 19, watched the proceedings from the Columbia County Jail through closed-circuit court television, and slumped visibly as Kulas read a letter from Ivanenko's father, Anatoliy Vasilievich Ivanenko.

After being held in both Columbia and Dodge counties since the accident while authorities debated whether to file charges or deport Pomaz for overstaying his visa, Columbia County Assistant District Attorney Troy Cross filed a single charge of homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle against Pomaz on July 16.

Kulas expressed concern for the young man's welfare in prison, citing the strains of being imprisoned in a foreign country and losing his fiance.

"I think he needs to be watched carefully," Kulas said. "He's likely very distressed."

According to the criminal complaint, deputies were called to South Bowman Road to respond to a one-vehicle rollover accident in the early-morning hours of June 29. Investigators allege that Pomaz lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a corner at speeds in excess of 55 mph in a 25-mph zone. The vehicle rolled, struck a power pole and continued to role to a stop.

Deputies found two women, one of them Ivanenko, pinned under the car. Ivanenko later died at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison. The other woman, Mariia Patsera, 19, also was treated at UW Hospital. None of the other people in the car suffered serious injuries.

According to court documents, Pomaz told officers that he "might have had a beer" but was not drunk and that the brakes failed on the SUV as it descended a hill, causing the accident.

Blood tests performed that night showed Pomaz's blood-alcohol concentration at 0.052 — below 0.08, the legal limit to drive in Wisconsin. Tests of the vehicle's brake system showed it to be "in good working condition," according to court documents.

Wisconsin Dells Police Chief Bret Anderson said after the crash that Pomaz did not have a Wisconsin driver's license and was not able to produce any type of international license.

Columbia County Medical Examiner Marc Playman conducted the autopsy, alcohol and drug tests on Ivanenko's body following the crash, and said he could release the body to a funeral home for transfer to Ukraine, but the DA's office suspended the release.

Cross said the county was obligated to keep the body as evidence until Pomaz obtains a public defender and that attorney declines to use the body as evidence.

Church set a $10,000 cash bond for Pomaz, and scheduled a pretrial hearing for Aug. 13 and a return hearing for Oct. 15.

The county court system should have an idea whether the body could be released by the pretrial hearing, Church said. He told Kulas and Korzachenko that, by scheduling the pretrial hearing within 10 days of the bond hearing instead of the standard 30 to 40 days, he was expediting the process as much as he could.

In the translated letter from Ivanenko's father, the Ukrainian man asks Columbia County authorities to speed up transportation of their daughter's body to Ukraine. The letter pleads for authorities to "make a little window in her coffin" and release to them all the details of the accident and the ensuing investigation.

Kulas said Ivanenko's parents know very few of the details surrounding their daughter's death, and said he hoped authorities would find a way to return the body before the pretrial hearing.

"I think we need to have a little more compassion and understanding," Kulas said. "Her parents aren't seeking compensation. They're an orthodox Christian family, and they want a decent burial for their daughter."

dweis@capitalnewspapers.com

745-3587
By Dustin Weis, Daily Register
Source: http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/204217

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