The California dare-devil who tried to parachute off the Empire State Building in 2006 won’t serve a day in prison, thanks to a judge who defied the wishes of both the police commissioner and some real-estate bigwigs by not caging him for a year.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber yesterday sentenced Jeb Corliss, 32, to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service.
“Jail time is not the only way to send a message,” the judge said, noting that Corliss had no criminal record, that probation officials agreed jail was not warranted, and that even prosecutors at one point offered the jumper a no-prison plea deal.
“I was pretty sure they were going to put me in,” Corliss said afterward. “It was pretty terrifying.”
Corliss is a world-class professional parachutist who has notched 1,000 successful leaps from bridges, skyscrapers and cliffs. His high-tech attempt to parachute off the landmark’s 86th-floor observation deck was foiled when security guards grabbed him as he scaled the deck’s surrounding chain-link “suicide fence.”
Under Corliss’ November reckless-endangerment conviction, Farber could have given him anywhere from zero to one year in prison – and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York and the owners of the Empire State Building had all written the judge urging a full one-year sentence, the misdemeanor equivalent of throwing away the key.