Obstruction Trial Begins for Pilot in Fatal Alps Accident

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. —  The Marine pilot acquitted of manslaughter in the Italian ski gondola tragedy that killed 20 people went on trial Wednesday on obstruction charges for allegedly helping to destroy a video shot from the cockpit of his jet.

Opening statements in the court-martial were interrupted for three hours while the judge considered and then rejected a request from the defense for a mistrial.

Capt. Richard Ashby’s lawyers objected to what they said was a prosecutor’s suggestion that Ashby’s silence about the videotape was evidence of his guilt.

The judge, Col. Alvin Keller, agreed that the prosecutor’s comments were improper but called a mistrial a “drastic remedy” and told the military jury to disregard the remark.

Ashby, 32, of Mission Viejo, Calif., was acquitted in March of 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the 1998 accident in which his EA-6B Prowler sliced through a ski gondola cable in the Alps. Prosecutors said he was flying recklessly.

He is being tried separately on charges of obstruction and conspiracy for allegedly helping to destroy a videotape shot by his navigator minutes before the jet hit the cable.

Ashby could receive up to 10 years in prison.

The prosecutor, Lt. Col. Carol Joyce, said Ashby deliberately concealed evidence when he replaced the video with a blank tape.

“He wanted to make his own judgment of that videotape,” she said. “He knew that after that flight, the tape would be nit-picked by investigators.”

Joyce also said Ashby failed to tell authorities about the videotape and invoked his right to silence before an Italian magistrate.

Defense attorney Frank Spinner complained that the government was saying Ashby “must be guilty because he elected to remain silent.”

Ashby’s navigator, Capt. Joseph Schweitzer, pleaded guilty to obstruction and conspiracy in the destruction of the tape and was ordered dismissed from the Marines.