Man Charged In Extortion Calls -- Defendant Posing As Kidnapper Tricked Victims Into Sexual Acts

Prosecutors say John F. Ambrose would punctuate his workday as a Boeing systems analyst with phone calls to people he had never met and demand they perform sexual acts to save the lives of their loved ones.

He would first call to find out whether a husband, a wife or a parent was gone. Then he called again, this time posing as a police officer, and warn the victim that the loved one had been kidnapped and could be harmed unless the abductors received cooperation.

Then came the call from the "kidnapper," who would demand sexual acts, including masturbation, to ensure the safety of the relative. Some of the victims complied, prosecutors say.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Susan Storey listed about 40 incidents between 1994 and last October in filing three counts of first-degree extortion charges yesterday against Ambrose.

Defense attorney Jim Roe said Ambrose will plead guilty and is seeking mental-health treatment. He has also agreed to pay restitution for victim-counseling costs if necessary.

"He's a good person who has done terrible things, and he is desperate to get well," Roe said. "He has already written the letters of apology. He is ashamed of himself and will do whatever it takes to make sure the victims are squared away."

Ambrose, 46, of Puyallup, is married, has children and no criminal record. He has been fired by Boeing.

Charges state that during a 15-day surveillance period at Ambrose's Bellevue office, he made 14 extortion calls or calls setting up the initial ruse. On one day, he called four victims.

Prosecutors are planning to ask for a 2 1/2-year prison sentence but will consider Roe's proposal that Ambrose instead undergo sexual-deviancy treatment.

Storey detailed more than a dozen incidents in which Ambrose used his ruse on victims in Seattle and the Eastside. One victim was a 15-year-old girl. Another time, the caller demanded sex between a man and his mother-in-law.

Storey said it appears Ambrose made all the calls from work, but she would not say how investigators initially traced the calls to him. She said she knew of at least one call fitting his pattern dating to 1992.