Pilot Can Refuse to Testify About a Missing Tape

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. —  A Marine pilot whose jet broke a ski gondola cable and killed 20 people in Italy last year cannot be forced to testify about a missing videotape shot before the accident, a judge ruled Thursday.

The setback for prosecutors came before lawyers began questioning potential jurors to hear the case of Capt. Richard Ashby, 31, of Mission Viejo, Calif.

The judge, Lt. Col. Robert Nunley, also ruled that prosecutors cannot see unpublished notes and tapes about the case belonging to CBS’ “60 Minutes” and Rolling Stone magazine.

A “60 Minutes” program on the cable car tragedy was broadcast Jan. 24; the Rolling Stone story was published in December.

Fourteen Marine officers, all of equal or superior rank to Ashby, were summoned as possible jurors at the court-martial. The selection process is expected to continue today, and opening arguments are planned for Monday.

An EA-6B Prowler radar-jamming jet flown by Ashby severed the Mt. Cermis gondola cable in the Italian Alps on Feb. 3, 1998. The jet was supposed to be at a minimum altitude of 1,000 feet when it hit the cable, which was suspended 370 feet above the valley.

During a motions hearing before jury selection, Nunley said the case against Ashby’s navigator, Capt. Joseph Schweitzer, was weak and he would be inclined to dismiss it.

The court-martial of Schweitzer, 31, of Westbury, N.Y., begins March 1.

Ashby is charged with 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter and faces a maximum sentence of more than 200 years.