World Trade Center BASE Jumpers Avoid Jail Time, Are Fined $2,000 Each

Two of three men who jumped from One World Trade Center in September 2013 were fined $2,000 each and ordered to complete community service on Monday.

1 WTC BASE Jumpers Avoid Felony Charges http://t.co/JVWJU46eEb

Two of three BASE jumpers who parachuted from One World Trade Center in September 2013 were fined $2,000 each on Monday and ordered to perform community service, Reuters reported.

Ander Rossig, 34, and James Brady, 33 — along with 28-year-old Marko Markovich, who will be sentenced later this month — were convicted in June of reckless endangerment and jumping from a structure, a misdemeanor that is punishable by one year in jail, Newsweek reported.

The three men had faced more serious felony charges.

The group's alleged lookout, Kyle Hartwell, is being tried separately.

Rossig, Brady, and Markovich admitted to jumping from One World Trade Center's communication tower on Sept. 30, 2013, around 3 a.m. The men snuck through a hole in a fence, and Brady, who worked on site, had hidden equipment upstairs in advance of the jump.

Originally, two of the men were caught on surveillance cameras wearing black suits and landing on the streets of lower Manhattan. After an investigation was launched, they released footage of the jump, which shows them gliding around the still-under-construction tower. The BASE jumpers were arrested in March 2014.

"In the nearly two years since this BASE jump occurred, the three men who parachuted off One World Trade Center have yet to acknowledge the dangerousness or cost of their actions," District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. "Today, a jury found their stunt to be reckless and illegal. Thanks to the NYPD, the Port Authority Police, prosecutors in my office, and the jury in this case, these defendants are being held accountable for their crimes."

The BASE jumpers were acquitted of the burglary charge after their lawyer successfully argued that the men did not enter One World Trace Center with the intent of committing a crime in the building.

Tim Parlatore, who represents Rossig, said the men had been open to pleading guilty to BASE jumping and other misdemeanors, but that the district attorney's office insisted on taking them to trial for the felony charges.

"There's never been any question that they intended to commit the administrative code violation of BASE jumping, but they never intended to commit a crime inside the building," Parlatore told Newsweek.

Rossig and Brady were also arrested in the Bronx in December 2012 after attempting to jump from a tower, the Bronx Times reported. Rossig was also arrested after jumping from an Orange Country bridge in 2008.

Watch the video of jump here:

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com
Skip to footer