Attorney for amusement park manager plans to seek probation
A prison term would be too harsh a punishment for Charles Stan Martin, 56, said Bryan Delius. Martin insists he committed no crime, Delius said.
Monday night, Martin was convicted by a jury of nine men and three women of reckless homicide, avoiding a second-degree murder charge. Reckless homicide carries a penalty of two to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Martin will be sentenced July 29 by Sevier County Circuit Court Judge Richard Vance.
June Carol Alexander, 51, of Millersville fell from The Hawk at Rockin’ Raceway on March 14, 2004, when her safety harness opened.
Prosecutors said Martin bypassed a safety system that would have stopped the ride when Alexander’s harness opened, not wanting to spend the money or the time for repairs on the biggest attraction at the small roadside park in Pigeon Forge owned by Martin’s brother-in-law.
Delius said Martin was glad to avoid the second-degree murder charge but feels he should have been found not guilty.
“It’s a relief that he was not guilty of murder, but it’s a disappointment that he was convicted of anything,” Delius told The Knoxville News Sentinel.
The lawyer said Martin was “doing remarkably well” after the verdict.
Delius said it’s too early to talk about a possible appeal, preferring to wait until the sentencing hearing. He said he would argue for judicial diversion, which would allow Martin to eventually have the conviction erased from his record.
Attorneys for Martin had sought to shift blame to Zamperla Inc., which sold Rockin’ Raceway the 24-passenger ride for $475,000 in 1998, set it up in Pigeon Forge and returned to make repairs when Martin called until the warranty ran out in 2000.
“Zamperla manufactured a ride that was junk,” Delius said at trial.
After Martin’s conviction, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is reintroducing the National Amusement Park Ride Safety Act to close a loophole in safety regulation of theme park rides, Markey’s office said Tuesday.
The bill would give the Consumer Product Safety Commission the same jurisdiction over “fixed-site” amusement rides that it currently has over mobile rides, including the authority to investigate accidents.
Markey also introduced the act in 1999 and 2003.
Tennessee remains one of 13 states without regular inspections of amusement park rides.
Former Rockin’ Raceway employee Judy Chance of Newport, who testified in the trial, said Martin’s conviction was unfair.
“It’s a political thing,” she said. “I feel like Stan was made an example of to get the law passed to get rides inspected.”
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Information from: The Knoxville News Sentinel, www.knoxnews.com