Basejumper.com - archive

So far, knocking on my wooden desk, I have not been
pinched nor had any close calls for BASE jumping...

However, the discussion brought up in the Jeb
thread about charges made me think it would
be beneficial to discuss this topic on its own.

I am aware of these possible charges:

Misdemeanor Trespassing
Reckless Endangerment
Aerial Delivery on NPS land
Felony Trespassing at a construction site in Florida
Whatever the new NYC law is

Here is an interesting collection of BASE cases:
BASE Jumping & The Law

Those of you who have gotten busted and feel
like sharing please chime in, because like I said
the above is just my newbie understanding only
from reading and NOT from real life experience.

I've been pinched twice, the first time because I shattered my foot and couldn't get away fast enough. I got 1 year deferred sentence if I stayed out of trouble. The judge also told me she did a tandem in College and it was the most thrilling thing she had ever done. Sorta funny.

The second time was when I blasted back into the Hotel in Denver, Reckless Endangerment was all they could come up with. HOWEVER, I spent 3 days in jail while they came up with that charge(200+ stitches), a 4 day jury trial and then a civil suit that cost me $5,000. What a massive pain in the ass.

The weirdest one was a ticket in Laramie Wyoming for driving with a suspended license on my way to the Perrine. The ticket was $490.00 fucking dolloars. I showed up for my court date on crutches with stitches in my face. The judge dropped everything and told me his wife, a secretary downstairs at the courthouse used to date Rob Slater (BASE #44). Rob died descending K2 after he summited. A weird thing for a hick Wyoming judge to blurt out in a courtroom I thought.

BASE 44 was Robin Heid

Now that the case is long, long gone and the dust is all clear:

myself and a couple other jumpers got busted in a National Monument (fuck Clinton for that and fuck the NPS pigs) which falls under the same Code of Federal Regulations, 2.1.7 something, something, just like any National Park in the USA.

We were the 2nd load ever in the park (E was just opened a month before) and the 1st bust. The NPS pigs did their homework (checking on how Yosemite handles us hard-core criminals) and were going to throw the book at us BAD. We hired one of those lawyer things and got charges and punishment reduced significantly.

Moral of the story, regardless of how popular and mainstream BASEhumping is becoming, those NPS cocksuckers still hate us with a passion. If you are going to jump in the parks take extra caution and be stealthy.

Note: if I get banned for "personal attacks" on those NPS ranger twats, so be it, we'll know where you stand.

Whatever dude, Robbie Slater is in the 40 series.

In 2007 I got pinched jumping an urban antenna. The usual misdemeanor trespassing, plus a "Stunting" charge under the Highway Traffic Act, also a misdemeanor. Apparently I *could have* created a distraction to someone driving by on the street.

The cops also wanted Transport Canada to charge me with something, as they figured I was violating controlled airspace over the city, but TC wanted nothing to do with it.

I could have fought it, but the court date was set for 8 months later, and they were holding my gear until I either paid the tickets or fought it in court.

None of the charges were criminal, so it just cost me a Saturday's worth of overtime. I would have probably paid more than the tickets were worth to fight it with lawyer fees, time off work, and probably still would have had to pay at least one of the two tickets.

Plus I wanted my gear back.

The trespassing ticket was interesting. It was almost exactly a dollar per foot of "stolen" altitude...

Urban jump.

Misdemeanor Trespass on a Friday night.

Dickhead Sheriff in my county would have held us all weekend until Monday morning to be released by the judge, but my girlfriend bailed both of us out. Ended up in a 20 person cell for about 15 hours with about 60 people in it; mostly warrants, drug possession, wife-beaters, stuff like that.

Friend got time served and the bail money was returned. I got a different prosecutor who wanted $1500 fine and a year of probation for my crimes against humanity. The judge fined me the exact amount of my bail, $350.

in national parks, they can throw in illegal commercial photography as a charge.

my bust was evading arrest and parachuting from the tower of the americas.

What's "illegal commercial photography?" Because I might want to do some of that.

I am guessing it's when you do a commercial shoot without getting a permit. Like say going to a local park to do a wedding shoot as a payed photog and not having paid the park their permit fee...

it's a trumped up charge even if there is no commercial intent. John Vincent jumped the St. Loius arch and got away. The feds held his friends who were videoing for the commercial photography violation. They held his friends on this until he would turn himself in. He turned himself in, they released his friends, and he got in a ton of legal trouble.

Is Robin Heid still alive??

Yes and he is still #44.

Rob Slater BASE#43

My bad, when I said was, I meant base 44 was achieved by Robin, with the past tense being that 44 was in the past.

Can you be arrested or fined for having your posts in green?

Many more bridges than the Perrine are *legal* or maybe appropriately, not technically illegal. I have had a couple of different interactions with police regarding jumping from bridges. if there is a public walkway along the side of the bridge, or in some cases a shoulder, its legal for a pedestrian to be there and if that's the case then its not illegal to jump. As long as the landing is public, as in a park, along a river which often has public access along the shore its legal, or if its private property and you have permission for private property (or they simply choose not to press charges, post hoc). There is nothing they can charge you with. At least this has occured for me on two different spans and an antenna.

I've heard of a coupleof similar cases of people getting caught on hotel jumps yet not charged because its not trespassing, the street is public and they had video demonstrating that there was no one below and hence no reckless endangerment.