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January 5, 2005

New Jersey Man Charged In Laser Probe

This man has got to be the most irresponsible human being I've heard about in quite some time and a terrible dad, or he's both of these things and a terrorist. Pointing a laser at an aircraft in flight is not only just plain dumb, it's an attempted homicide. I hate to see the little girl without a dad but he needs to be locked up.

1010 Wins via Ace of Spades:

Federal authorities on Tuesday used their strongest anti-terror law to charge a Parsippany man with pointing a laser at an airplane, temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot. His lawyer said the man simply was using the device to look at stars with his daughter.

The defendant, David Banach, 38, first claimed his daughter aimed a laser at a helicopter, but later admitted to federal agents that he pointed the light beam at two aircraft near Teterboro Airport last week, authorities said.

He was charged Tuesday with interfering with the operator of a mass transportation vehicle and making false statements to the FBI. He faces up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000 if convicted.

Banach's lawyer, Gina Mendola-Longarzo, said authorities' use of a provision of the USA Patriot Act to charge her client was bogus. She said Banach is "your average guy, a family man" who was simply playing around with the hand-held device on his back deck with his young daughter.

"One would think they would want to devote their time and resources to prosecuting real terrorists, not people like my client," she said after Banach made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate, who released him on $100,000 bail.

Mendola-Longarzo said Banach was using the beam to look up at the stars, and was shining it at trees and neighbors' houses. He uses the $100 device, which he bought over the Internet, for his job with a local labor union, testing fiber optic cables for holes, she said.

"He wasn't trying to harm any person, any aircraft or anything like that," she said.

The FBI took a much dimmer view of his actions.     Continue reading...

Posted by Hyscience at January 5, 2005 12:02 AM

Posted by: steve at January 5, 2005 12:18 AM

• New Jersey Man Charged In Laser Probe - Jan 05, 2005