North Hollywood Man Sentenced for Pointing Laser at Aircraft

A North Hollywood man who shined a laser at a business jet and then aimed the “commercial-grade” device at a police helicopter sent to find the source was sentenced today to three months behind bars after an appeals court vacated a previous 2 1/2-year prison term.

Adam Gardenhire, 22, was also ordered to perform nearly two weeks of community service and serve a year of supervised release after he gets out of jail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Gardenhire pointed the laser at a Cessna Citation on March 29, 2012, as the pilot was preparing to land at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, leaving the pilot with vision impairment that lasted several hours.

Gardenhire then aimed the device at a Pasadena police helicopter that had been dispatched to find the source of the laser pointed at the Cessna, federal prosecutors said, noting that the helicopter pilot was wearing protecting eye gear and did not suffer any injury.

Laser beams, even penlight-style pointers, can temporarily blind pilots. Though lasers project a tiny beam over relatively short distances, the diameter of the beam grows significantly over the distance of a few miles.

Gardenhire pleaded guilty in October 2012 to a single federal count of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft.

At sentencing the following year, the court applied an enhancement for “reckless endangerment.”

In its April ruling, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the district court erred in concluding that Gardenhire “acted recklessly when he aimed his laser beam at the aircraft,” when the record is devoid of evidence that the defendant was “aware of the risk created by his conduct.”

City News Service; Photo: www.flickr.com