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A 20-year-old Texas man who got drunk and slammed into a children's
ski school class at Sunlight Ski Area was sentenced Thursday to
the heaviest penalty ever handed out in a Colorado ski-collision.
240 day jail sentence
Garfield County District Judge James Boyd sentenced Michael Wolff,
of Killeen, Texas, to 240 days in jail for snowboarding into four
children, three of whom were 5 and the other 6, injuring two of
them.
However, Boyd credited Wolff with 152 days of time already served
and said the remaining 88 days may be suspended should a bed open
up in the Colorado West transitional living center, where Wolff
is to undergo an alcohol abuse treatment program. Wolff was ordered
to a three-year, alcohol-free term of probation and to pay more
than $9,300 in restitution, plus court costs.
Negligent homicide
His sentence surpasses the 90-day sentence Nathan Hall received
for criminally negligent homicide in the 1997 death of Alan Cobb,
a 33-year-old skier who died of head injuries after Hall collided
with him.
"I've wanted to say since the accident
that I apologize," a tearful Wolff told Boyd. "I didn't set out
that day to hurt anyone, especially children. I was really selfish,
and I've been drinking too long. It's caused problems with my family."
Wolff had pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse causing serious
bodily injury due to negligence, a felony, and one count of reckless
injury involving child abuse, a misdemeanor. He could have faced
up to 12 years in prison.
Children 'in the way'
Deputy District Attorney Tricia Lacey said Wolff was severely intoxicated
and "flying downhill, uncaring, with no effort to avoid it. Then
he didn't stop to help. He said things like the children got in
his way. He was uncooperative and not remorseful." Although she
said she agreed with the recommendation for probation in a presentence
report, she asked Boyd to sentence Wolff to the full 240 days in
jail with no credit for time served.
Source: Rocky Mountain News
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