Hank Caylor's acquittal of reckless endamgerment charges in Denver March 21 was a great victory for BASE jumping.
Both Marta Empinotti and I were certified as expert witnesses and our testimony, combined with that of Jess Neuger and Hank himself convinced the six-person jury that BASE jumping was a "serious" extreme sport and that Hank took substantial safety precautions before his jump and that his 180/wall strike/window-crash was in fact a "fluke" and not a common event -- and therefore not reckless in any way.
It was a testament to how far BASE jumping has come in the public eye that not even the prosecutors dared to condemn our sport but only tried to paint Hanks's specific jump as reckless. Both prosecutors in their closing statements, for example, took great pains to declare that BASE jumping "is not on trial here" and that BASE was "a legitimate extreme sport."
Listening to it, I felt almost like we were in the twilight zone -- and while all the jurors afterward said they thought there should be a law against BASE jumping in the city WITHOUT PERMISSION, the Rocky Mountain News reporter neglected to mention that they ALSO said they thought BASE jumping SHOULD be allowed in the city in a regulated, permit-focused, formal way, with days and buildings set aside specifically for that purpose!
More details coming in Skydiving Magazine's next issue, but BASE Board readers, this was a big-time win for BASE jumping, and everyone who loves this sport owes Hank's lawyer Gage Fellows a debt of gratitude because Gage did a MASTERFUL job of using Marta and me to maximum advantage and overall managing the case in a way that left the district attorneys (all THREE of them!) flailing and grasping at straws and looking pretty much like the complete idiots they were for trying to use an unrelated statute to get their pound of flesh from Hank (NPS... are you listening???).
Robin Heid
BASE 44
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