NEW YORK (AP) - June 15, 2010
Jeb Corliss was permanently barred from the skyscraper as part of a ruling last week in a lawsuit filed by the building's corporate owners. The court decision also tossed out Corliss' claims that the owners defamed and otherwise harmed him in responding to the April 2006 episode.
Corliss' lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, called the ruling "a hollow victory" for the skyscraper's management, saying the stuntman had already promised to avoid the building unless invited back. A spokeswoman for the Empire State Building didn't immediately return a call Tuesday evening.
Corliss, 34, is a BASE jumper - the acronym stands for "building, span, antenna, earth" - who says he's made more than 1,000 successful leaps from structures and cliffs around the world. He lives in Malibu, Calif.
He was the host of a Discovery Channel program called "Stunt Junkies" when he donned a fat suit with a parachute hidden underneath and went up to the 102-story Empire State Building's 86th-floor observation deck on April 27, 2006. He stripped off the disguise in a bathroom, put on a helmet with a video camera and scaled a fence at the edge of the deck. Security guards stopped him by grabbing him through the fence.
Corliss was later convicted of a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to 3 years' probation and 100 hours of community service.
He told the jury he didn't "think there was anything wrong with what I do" and believed BASE jumping should be a right. The Empire State Building's owners saw those remarks as a continuing threat to trespass at the storied skyscraper.
The $12 million lawsuit also argues that the stunt attempt harmed business at New York City's tallest skyscraper, in part by forcing an hourlong shutdown of the observation deck. Corliss denies those allegations, and last week's ruling said they merit a trial.
Corliss, meanwhile, said the skyscraper's owners had defamed him by calling his conduct "illegal" in court papers - a claim Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon rejected, noting his conviction. She also nixed his claim that the handling of the incident caused him emotional distress.
"Preventing an individual from jumping off of the 86th floor of the Empire State Building is neither extreme nor outrageous," Solomon wrote.
In the aftermath, Corliss has offered suggestions to the building's management about preventing suicide leaps, Heller said.
The Discovery Channel dropped Corliss after his arrest.
