Two base jumpers who skydived off the World Trade Center “sullied the memories” of victims of the 9/11 attacks, a New York judge said on Monday, slapping them with hefty sentences of community service.
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At their sentencing Monday, prosecutors asked for at least 60 days in jail with three years of probation, saying their stunt could have killed a bystander.
In June, jurors found the trio guilty of reckless endangerment.
The jumps caused considerable embarrassment to authorities over security at the building, the tallest in the United States.
They then picked up equipment left by Brady, who worked as an iron worker at the construction site, and parachuted off of the building one by one.
Merchan said the act wasn’t heroic, adding, “It may have taken courage, but it didn’t save anyone, make the world a better place or protect our country”.
“We understand that what we did could possibly have endangered other people and it’s never going to happen again”.
A video of the jump was posted on YouTube, and surveillance video captured the jumpers landing in front of the Goldman Sachs building.
“The evidence at trial showed a disturbing degree of calculation, forethought and planning behind the defendants” crime, ‘ he said.
“They knew what they were doing was wrong every step of the way”, he said, yet they did everything to “celebrate their perceived accomplishment”.
“This is a case we were trying to resolve from the beginning with this exact resolution”, said Rossig’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore.
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The three were acquitted of felony burglary, convicted only of misdemeanors, which Judge Juan Merchan said don’t fully address what they did. “He will continue jumping in legal locations, cliffs in Europe and things like that”.
