Boarder Sentenced in Skiing Collision
Texan, 20, Drunkenly Slammed Into Four Kids
Rocky Mountain News
August 15, 2003
By Ellen Miller
GLENWOOD SPRINGS-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.
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.
"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."
Boyd also ordered Wolff to write letters of apology to the victims and submit them through his probation officer.
"I think Mr. Wolff has learned a lesson in this case," Boyd said. "He has a chance to reform his alcoholic behavior."
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.
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.
Jeff Bader of Carbondale, whose daughter, Sophia Page, was bruised on her arm, neck and face in the collision March 15, told Boyd that it will be hard to get his daughter back on the ski slopes, because "my little girl was terrified and in pain."
After Wolff was sentenced, Bader said he thought the outcome was fair. "I'm glad he'll get some treatment," Bader said. "Hopefully we'll get Sophia back on the slopes."
Jim Chalat, a Denver attorney who represents Riley Malone, the most severely injured child, whose leg was broken and required surgery, said Riley's parents supported probation.
The parents have filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver against Wolff, but Chalat said Thursday it appears unlikely they'll collect anything because of Wolff's lack of resources, education and family support.
"You didn't see his family here, right?" Chalat said. "What a heartbreak."
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.
