Многие слышали о трагедии, произошедшей 29 июня с участием студентов из Украины. В сегодняшнем номере WSJ ее продолжение:

Release her body, consul urges

By Dustin Weis
Portage Daily Register

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

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

Korzachenko sat silent through much of the proceedings, but a pro bono attorney, Julian E. Kulas, spoke on behalf of him and of the parents of the victim, 19-year-old Olga Ivanenko. Kulas said Korzachenko has received letters from the girl's parents, who live in the Ukrainian city of Herson, stating that Pomaz and Ivanenko were engaged 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," Kulas told Columbia County Court Commissioner Charles F. Church. "What is the necessity to keep her dead body?"

Columbia County Medical Examiner Marc Playman 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 it as evidence. The court should have an idea whether the body could be released by Pomaz's Aug. 13 pretrial hearing, Church said.

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."

All five Ukrainian students in the car at the time of the June 29 crash 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 crash while authorities debated whether to file charges or deport Pomaz for overstaying his visa, Columbia County Assistant District Attorney Troy Cross filed a charge of homicide by negligent driving on July 16.

According to the criminal complaint, deputies were called to South Bowman Road for a one-vehicle rollover crash early on June 29. It alleges that Pomaz lost control of the vehicle going around a corner in excess of 55 mph in a 25-mph zone. The vehicle rolled and hit a power pole.

Deputies found Ivanenko and Maria Patsera, 19, pinned under the car. Ivanenko later died at UW Hospital in Madison. The other woman 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 crash. Blood tests performed that night showed Pomaz's blood-alcohol concentration at 0.052 -- below the 0.08 legal limit to drive in Wisconsin. Tests of the vehicle's brakes showed them to be "in good working condition."

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.

Church set a $10,000 cash bond for Pomaz.

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