Posted on 03/09/2011 10:48:36 AM PST by rawhide
A Decatur man accused of punching a 14-year-old girl in the face for running into his son on the slopes in Colorado has pleaded guilty to third-degree assault.
The Vail Daily reported Tuesday that the plea from 41-year-old Scott Filler, a renowned malaria expert, was for a misdemeanor stemming from the December incident at Beaver Creek Ski Resort.
Police reports say Filler thought the teen was skiing carelessly when she bumped into his 4-year-old son. Eagle County sheriff's deputies say that's when he jumped on the girl and hit her with his fist. The girl said she was swerving to avoid another skier.
District Attorney Mark Hurlbert says Filler was sentenced to anger management classes and restitution, the amount of which would be determined by the girl.
Prosecutors also sought community service, but Hurlbert says the judge fined Filler $500 instead.
Three witnesses told deputies they observed Filler punch girl between two and four times.
The ski instructor who pulled the Decatur man off the girl told deputies Filler punched her "at least four times, using a closed fist," sheriff's Lt. Mike McWilliam told the AJC. Two other witnesses said they observed Filler yell at the girl before landing two or three punches, the sheriff's office spokesman said.
Filler, charged with misdemeanor child abuse, told deputies he thought the girl was skiing carelessly and had seriously injured his son. The boy was not hurt, however, and Filler apologized. The girl was treated for minor injuries at a local medical center.
Her father requested charges be filed against Filler, who was banned for life from Vail's six ski resorts.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
"Bunny slope" is just slang for "beginner run."
I know you think your arguments are very powerful. And frankly, I don’t mind you making them. If they make sense to you, you should.
I’m still not buying what you’re selling.
Knowing why the guy hit the girl in the face couldn’t be less important to me. He hit her. Lock him up!
There are three words that relevancy here. They are not, “He did it, because...” They are, “He was wrong.”
After that we move on to the penalty phase. And this guy got a free pass.
In California, they given certain groups tax breaks. I kid you not. I believe ‘scientists’ are one of the groups. It’s my take this guy got off with almost no penalty at all, because he was a member of a favored group.
“Aw, he can’t be all that bad. He’s a scientist.”
This nation is becoming loonyville.
Pretty much. IMHO, a teenager is a punk until proven otherwise. :)
ROFL. Okay, now seriously, what makes you think she was skiing too fast? How fast was she going? If she was going too fast, how did they both avoid injury (until the father of the year began pummeling her)?
I'll answer your ridiculous hypothetical:
It's unlikely anything would have happened since the 4 year old wasn't injured and the parent, being a classic bully, wouldn't have attempted to assault an individual equal in stature as him.............He's a classic immature bully.
I agree.
And this guy got a free pass.
He paid a fine, paid her restitution, and now has a permanent criminal record that forever labels him as a child abuser. That seems fair to me.
It's pretty rare anyone with no priors would get a worse sentence for punching someone in the face and not doing any permanent damage.
Your self rightious condecension marks you though.
You still got nuthin, refering to the post that you were refering to earlier.
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Please don't trouble yourself with any future posts to me. I'm sure you have better things to do, like buying a dictionary, for example.
It’s rather self-serving of me to say this, but I obviously agree with you. My response echoed yours to a certain extent.
I didn’t buy it either.
I've skiied since I was six years old. I had it drilled into me, since childhood, that if you hit someone below you, you were skiing to fast. Period. Ask any ski patroller or ski instructor and they'll tell you the same.
And a female teenager is a punk that deserves to be punched in the face, right?
As I've said again, and again, and again: no.
Do I have to say it again? Okay, I'll say it again:
No. She did not deserve to be punched. Period.
Hitting her was wrong. Period.
The guy deserved to be punished, and he was.
Wrong. If she was watching the person in front of her to avoid them and the kid came from behind or off to the side, she may have never even seen him. We don't know that he didn't ski into HER path.
And if she was falling, as some beginner is likely to do when trying to avoid someone, she would have no control over that either. People can't levitate or teleport last I knew.
Neither one of them was hurt in the collision, which the father would have done well to find out first.
Who knows, she might have even apologized, but there's no way of knowing because it sounds like he never gave her the chance.
You can justify bullying and coming down hard on the girl all you want, but it is not warranted without a lot of assumptions made that cannot be substantiated.
There's nothing in the article that states she was skiing recklessly and given that the 4 year old was unlikely to be on an advanced slope, it can only be assumed that this area was for beginner skiers. And beginner skiers cannot be expected to be in total control of their skiing at that level..........shit happens and so does on slope collisions.
An adult punching on a 14 year old girl under these benign circumstances does require severe punishment..........
Then you had really bad instructors. Period.
I thought he should have gotten street justice and a hospital stay myself with this not going to court.
It was a beginner run, not an advanced slope. By definition, if you can't avoid hitting someone on a slope like that, you're skiing too fast. Go look up the skier's responsibility code if you don't believe me.
And beginner skiers cannot be expected to be in total control of their skiing at that level.
A beginner skier can be expected to ski slow enough to avoid collisions on green runs.
An adult punching on a 14 year old girl under these benign circumstances does require severe punishment..........
He was punished, correctly, in my opinion. How much more severe would you make it?
Grow up, and man up. Trisham was responding directly to what you posted. It’s still there, so quit denying it.
How do you know she was skiing too fast on the bunny slope? Do you know what the bunny slope is for? It's for beginner skiers who do not know how to control their skis...............That's why they have "bunny slopes".
And for the record, that's where the most non-injury causing collisions occur.......
For the 100th time, I'm not justifying his bullying. I agree he needed to be punished, just as he was.
but it is not warranted without a lot of assumptions made that cannot be substantiated.
I can't say for certain that my view of the events is correct. But The judge, who had access to all the facts and did not need to make assumptions, appears to have agreed with my assessment of the situation.
I'm not going to second guess a judge unless I have good reason to.
Interesting how you edited Hot Tabasco’s post to make it appear he/she said exactly the opposite of what was really said. Hot Tabasco deduced that it was a beginner slope. Why would try to make it look like HT said it was an advanced slope? If you have to be deceptive to make your argument, maybe your argument doesn’t have any merit to begin with.
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