Phish fan pleads not guilty to jumping from balcony
Police handout of Luke Duplessis, the man who is accused of diving off the balcony of the Jones Beach Theater durng a Phish concert on August 18th. Credit: Handout
The man accused of jumping from the balcony at a Phish concert at Jones Beach Theater last week pleaded not guilty in Hempstead District Court Friday, saying the fall was accidental.
"This was an accident, as he has said from the beginning," Luke Duplessis' lawyer, Dan Russo of Garden City, said at the arraignment.
Duplessis, 30, of Old Town, Maine, was released without bail on charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. He is due back in court Sept. 10.
Police say Duplessis, who attends the University of Maine and owns a restaurant, jumped from an upper tier during a Phish concert at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater on Aug. 18, injuring a concertgoer below, New York State Park Police said.
He turned himself in to the Park Police just over a week after he tumbled into seats below his tier, falling onto concert patrons and damaging seating in the sold-out Wantagh amphitheater, police said.
The person who was hit was treated at the scene and continued watching the concert, police said.
Duplessis, who was in critical condition after the incident, was treated at the scene and flown to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he stayed for two days.
Prosecutors requested that Duplessis be held on $5,000 bail because he is not a Long Island resident. But Russo successfully argued that Duplessis should be released, since he returned to Nassau County immediately upon being asked and cooperated fully with police.
With Zachary R. Dowdy
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.
