A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning while kayaking and left his wife and three children to meet a woman in the country of Georgia was convicted Tuesday of obstructing an officer and sentenced to 89 days in jail – the amount of time he successfully misled law enforcement about his whereabouts.
The sentence given to Ryan Borgwardt was nearly twice as long as what was recommended under a plea deal reached with prosecutors.
Borgwardt, 45, initially pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor that stemmed from his elaborate escape from the country last August. But under the plea deal unveiled Tuesday, Borgwardt changed his plea to no contest and agreed to pay $30,000 in restitution to law enforcement to cover what was spent trying to locate him. A no contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt but is treated as such for the purposes of sentencing.
“I deeply regret the actions I did that night and all the pain I caused my family, friends,” Borgwardt said in court before being sentenced.
Prosecutors asked Green Lake County Circuit Judge Mark Slate to sentence Borgwardt to just 45 days in jail. But the judge nearly doubled it, sentencing him to 89 days – the same number of days from when he was declared missing until the sheriff’s department made contact with him overseas, the judge said.
