| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| -Lurid Crime Tales- | ||
| California man who lasered two helicopters gets 14 years | ||
| 2014-04-02 | ||
| Earlier this month, a Fresno man received what is believed to be the strongest sentence issued anywhere in the United States for firing a laser pointer at an aircraft--14 years in prison. His girlfriend was also convicted on similar charges, but she will not be sentenced until May 2014. "To our knowledge, it is the largest sentence imposed in this type of case," Karen Escobar, the assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of California, told Ars. The practice is on the rise: Feds recorded nearly 4,000 such incidents in 2013. According to the criminal complaint, on a warm summer evening in late August 2012, Sergio Rodriguez took his green laser pointer and fired it at a passing helicopter from outside of his apartment. His apartment complex sat just about a half mile north of the west end of the Fresno Yosemite International Airport in one of the Central Valley's largest cities. Unknowingly, the then-24-year-old struck not just any helicopter, but "Air George," an emergency transport ambulance helicopter of Children's Hospital of Central California. The helicopter was flying from Bakersfield to Fresno with a young patient, two crew members, and a pilot on board. The pilot informed the airport's air traffic control, which then relayed it to a nearby police helicopter that was on routine patrol. As the helicopter, called Air-1, moved to the reported location north of the airport, it was struck seven times as it circled overhead. Air-1 next radioed down to the neighboring town of Clovis, which sent patrol cars to an apartment complex. Using Air-1's spotlight, Fresno's pilots guided Clovis officers to the north side of the apartment complex so they would not be observed. One Clovis cop, Officer Peters, jumped over a wall and began walking around the area. Peters was quickly informed by a fellow resident that the person "in Apartment #117 is doing it, I saw him." Peters recognized Rodriguez from his prior encounters with local law enforcement (including a domestic disturbance) and knew that he was out on probation--and he saw a "dark cylindrical object in his right hand." Rodriguez turned and ran toward his apartment, but Peters caught up to him. After searching him, Peters found the green laser pointer. Meanwhile, another Clovis cop, Officer Cleaver, arrived and began to arrest Rodriguez. Rodriguez' girlfriend, Jennifer Coleman, then interrupted and said that she was the one that fired the laser. However, Coleman denied intentionally firing at the helicopter. Both of the two were booked at Fresno County Jail and later released.
"We in federal law enforcement understand the dangers posed by laser strikes on aircraft," US Attorney Benjamin Wagner stated in a late March 2014 statement. "This is not a game. It is dangerous, and it is a felony. Those who aim lasers at aircraft should know that we will seek to convict them, and we will seek to send them to prison. The safety of aircraft and the people in them demands no less." | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 The ones to really worry about are those which emanate from the aircraft. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-04-02 16:04 |
| #4 Sort of amazed that we haven't regulated laser pointers so that they have an effective range of 10 feet or so before starting to dispurse into harmlessness. Guess the politicians and control freaks (but I repeat myself) hadn't thought of that. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2014-04-02 15:24 |
| #3 ..moral of the story: Do NOT laser helioclopters. They can stay around for a while while the fuzz tracks your sorry a$$ down. Maybe said helioclopter can, in lieu of time in the crowbar motel, drop the perps off in TJ, if you catch my drift.. |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-04-02 13:09 |
| #2 see them = see the beam, not just the endpoint. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-04-02 09:46 |
| #1 Green laser? Dolt. Unlike most other spectrum of laser, those are visible to the naked eye, meaning you can see them all the way up, which is "cool" and great for teaching astronomy. But that also means you can see them and trace them visibly back to point of origin. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-04-02 09:45 |