The Delta jet landed Saturday afternoon at Madison’s Dane County Regional Airport, carrying at least three passengers who had spent 13 hours in flight.
“They’ll be the last ones off the plane,” the pilot said with a grin.
Nikolay Prodanov emerged minutes later, shackled and escorted by two U.S. marshals.
For eight months, La Crosse County District Attorney’s investigator Bob Muth had worked with federal and international agencies to recapture and return the 62-year-old to the U.S. after he fled to his native Bulgaria in July, days before the start of his sexual assault trial.
“I think he probably never understood the term long arm of the law, but he will now,” said Muth, the lone investigator in the district attorney’s office.
Prodanov posted a $5,000 cash bond in October 2006 after La Crosse County prosecutors accused him of attempting to sexually assault a developmentally disabled 18-year-old woman at a La Crosse park.
Then he didn’t show up for a mandatory court hearing July 8, 2009.
“We didn’t know if he was in the U.S. or not,” Muth said.
Leads that Prodanov might be in Canada or Massachusetts quickly dried up. His daughter confessed to a detective in Maynard, Mass., that her father, a U.S. citizen since 2006, went to Bulgaria to visit his ailing mother, Muth said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection learned Prodanov had flown from Chicago to Bulgaria on June 21.
Then Prodanov called his former boss at Trane Co. on Sept. 6, unknowingly leaving his Bulgarian phone number on a caller ID. Muth called a lieutenant with Interpol’s Fugitive Division, who traced Prodanov to a Bulgarian village.
The district attorney’s office was able to convert Prodanov’s $500,000 bench warrant to an international warrant, triggering his Nov. 27 arrest.
“It was an early Christmas present,” Muth said.
Prodanov waived extradition. The U.S. Marshals Service offered to absorb the extradition fee, reducing La Crosse County’s tab to $1,789 for paperwork translations.
Prodanov appeared Monday in La Crosse County Circuit Court on a new felony bail jumping charge. He’s jailed on a $500,000 cash bond and will return to court Friday with an attorney.
Muth was in court Monday to see the results of eight months of sometimes frustrating investigative work.
“You’re jumping through hoops that you’ve never gone through. You don’t know what the right protocol is and who’s in charge of what,” Muth said.
La Crosse County defendants rarely flee the country, though Muth has tracked cases as far as England. The search for Prodanov was the most complicated and wide-ranging he’s handled so far.
La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke praised Muth but wasn’t surprised by his dedication to the case.
“When he gets an assignment, he’s not going to give up until it’s done,” Gruenke said. “I think it’s pretty impressive that a part-time investigator can find someone in Bulgaria. That takes talent.”
“And luck,” Muth said.
“He’s humble,” Gruenke said.
http://www.lacrossetribune.com / Bulgaria today
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