Frenchman who took liberties with the Lady charged

Devaux appeared in federal court hours after being rescued after hanging for 35 minutes alongside the Statue of Liberty.

By Phil Hirschkorn and Laura Dolan
CNN New York Bureau

LIBERTY ISLAND, New York (CNN) -- New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Friday called a French thrill-seeker "an idiot" after the man parasailed to the Statue of Liberty and got hung up, bungling his attempt to bungee-jump off Lady Liberty's torch and leaving him dangling from the monument.

Stuntman Thierry Devaux -- who goes by the name of Terry Do -- hung alongside the wrist of the statue's raised arm for 35 minutes Thursday morning, his red parasail draped over the torch. National Park police and New York City police officers rescued Devaux, apparently uninjured, shortly after 10 a.m. EDT.

In U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York a few hours later, Devaux was charged with trespassing, unlawfully traversing a national monument, reckless endangerment and unlawful use of an airborne device. The four misdemeanor charges could lead to a one-year jail sentence. He may face additional state charges.

Devaux, 41, did not enter a plea. He was released on $10,000 bail, to be put up by his attorney Jeremy Orden, and ordered to surrender his passport.

VIDEO Watch Thierry Devaux get entangled in the Statue of Liberty's torch and his rescue (August 23) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Orden told reporters that Devaux was an "acrobat who performs on the bungee cord" and that the intended statue jump was a "form of artistic expression."

The stunt had prompted officials to close the monument and evacuate Liberty Island out of concern the incident might be a terrorist assault. Devaux was not armed, Sgt. William Vitolo of the U.S. Park Police said, nor was the statue damaged. The statue reopened to visitors by midafternoon.

"This was really a dangerous thing, a dumb and stupid thing," Giuliani said at a news conference. "There may be some humor about this, but I don't find it very funny when police officers' lives are put in jeopardy by an idiot like this."

Devaux reached the statue by using what he has called a "paramotor," a parasail with an engine attached.

He had planned to take off from a building in New Jersey about 1.5 miles from the statue, land in the narrow platform that surrounds the torch and then to bungee-jump from there, according to comments he made to the media before the stunt. But his parasail wrapped around the torch before he could land.

Devaux dangles from the statue's torch.

"He wasn't too happy that his plan was foiled," said Officer Keith Duvall, a member of the NYPD's scuba team who happened to be in the area at the time. Federal Aviation Administration agents and park police interviewed Devaux on the island.

"What started here as kind of amusement or amazement turned to concern," said tour guide John Keatts, who said he was on a tour boat circling Liberty Island when Devaux landed. "Is this terrorism? Is there going to be a bomb? Is there going to be an explosion? What in the world's going on? So it was a little frantic for a while."

Devaux claimed to have made similar jumps from the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge, but those assertions could not be immediately verified.

Devaux, who practices in his hometown of Annecy, France, has said he has performed such stunts "for the pleasure."

Officer Derrick Amalbert, who responded to the incident, said he was hardly inspired by the jump.

"It was very dangerous to be up there," he said. "It's not the way I'd like to visit the statue myself."