Happy day for the French daredevil who climbed The New York Times
Building last week, as the jury dismissed the criminal charges against him.
According to The New York Times, Barbara Thompson, a
spokeswoman for the Manhattan
district attorney’s office, said Thursday that Alain Robert, the French climber,
was cleared of criminal charges. Instead, the jury told the district attorney
to charge him of disorderly conduct in Criminal Court, said the spokeswoman.
Daniel N. Arshack, Robert’s lawyer, said that a disorderly
conduct was like an equivalent of a parking ticket and was not a crime. Robert
could face a maximum penalty of 15 days and a fine, if the prosecutors decide
to pursue these charges. They must decide by October 1.
Robert, 45, faced misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment,
trespassing and graffiti and, also, disorderly conduct charges.
The French professional climber said he was very careful and
took the necessary measures so that no one would get hurt.
“He was elated and relieved that they understood that he had
done what he did safely,” said Robert's lawyer, Arshack, according to the New
York Daily News.
The second climber, Renaldo Clarke, 32, of Brooklyn,
is still under investigation.
The two climbers Robert and Clarke climbed the 52-story New
York Times Building in Times Square a few
hours apart from one another.
Robert, an experienced stuntman known as The French
Spiderman, was the first to climb the building and unfurl a banner that read "Global
warming kills more people than a 9/11 every week." He was arrested
when he got to the top.
A few hours later, Clarke, a New Yorker who declared he
wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of malaria, climbed the Eighth Avenue side
of the building.
Before reaching the building’s top, Clarke started showing
signs of fatigue, and officers awaiting him on the roof encouraged him and even
threw him a rope, which he refused to take.
Robert has already climbed more than 70 skyscrapers all
across the globe and said he was arrested 14 times so far. He was last arrested
in February, after climbing a 42-floor building in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
