2 couches tossed from sixth floor ("What's the problem? I've done it before!")

Staton Island Advance ^ | 7.29.03 | RYAN LILLIS

[mhking]

A Stapleton woman has discovered a new way to get rid of old furniture, authorities said.

Kisha Adams, 31, was seen by a housing cop tossing two couches off the sixth floor of her apartment building on Sunday afternoon, according to court documents.

And, according to Ms. Adams' statement to police, this wasn't the first time.

"I'm getting rid of furniture," she told police, according to court papers. "I've done it before from the eighth floor. No one's going to get hurt."

Police apparently didn't share her laid-back approach. Ms. Adams was charged with first- and second-degree reckless endangerment, and disorderly conduct.

According to court papers, Police Officer Nicole Perry of the Staten Island Housing Police witnessed Ms. Adams throwing her furniture from the balcony outside her apartment at 197 Gordon St. around 5 p.m. Sunday.

The couches dropped six stories and landed on the sidewalk -- directly in front of the main entrance to the building, a heavily populated building in the Stapleton Houses complex, court papers state.

Ms. Adams has no prior arrests and was released without bail following her arraignment in Stapleton Criminal Court yesterday. She stood silently wearing a gray T-shirt and blue jeans, her hands crossed firmly behind her back.

Authorities said her actions were dangerous in that they "did create a grave risk of death and serious physical injury to another," court papers state.

Ryan Lillis is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at lillis@siadvance.com.

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Palladin]

Did she at least yell: "AHOY, beloooooow!"

[supercat]

Did she at least yell: "AHOY, beloooooow!"

Not sure I'd consider that exactly adequate, but if she had a couple people on the ground protecting the "drop zone" from all sides I'd have a hard time finding her guilty of reckless endangerment. Not sure sofa-dropping should be considered 100% kosher, but provided certain precautions are taken and provided all the detritus is picked up and any ground damage repaired I don't really see what would constitute a criminal charge.

[tophat9000]

Reminds me of an old National Lampoon radio hour bit

A game show called 'Catch It And You Keep It"

[Wil H]

Just who was endangered bt this admittedly stupid act?

What I mean is, unless the police can come up with specific persons that were endagered by the act I think they are on pretty thin ice.

If not, anyone can be charged with reckless endangerment on almost any pretext. All you wwould need to prove your case isa hypothetical.

[Ann Archy]

Excuse me....bt tossing out ANYTHING from the 6th floor is a TAD dangerous, let alone a SOFA!!! What a hillbilly!

[supercat]

Excuse me....bt tossing out ANYTHING from the 6th floor is a TAD dangerous, let alone a SOFA!!! What a hillbilly!

IMHO, for someone to be charged with reckless endangerment, there should be some conceivable means by which their actions could cause serious bodily harm to someone, or cause noticeable bodily harm to an unwilling person.

If someone just yells "LOOK OUT BELOW" and pushes a sofa out a window and there happens to be a doorway below, the person might be charged with reckless endangerment on the basis that someone could have opened the doorway and walked out, unaware of the danger.

If, however, a couple of spotters had cleared out a 25' circle around the drop zone, were in a position to ensure nobody else could enter, and were wearing helmets and safety glasses, I'm not really sure how anyone would be endangered.

I don't know what precautions were taken in this case, so I don't know whether any of the charges were appropriate.

[ThirdMate]

A hillbilly would never toss a perfectly good sofa, they would keep it on their porch!

[WorkingClassFilth]

A hundred pound couch dropped from six stories...

Lessee, rusty physics here but isn't F = MA the equation?

(100 lbs.) X (6 X 12') X (9.8 ft/second) = 70,560 pounds of impact force.

So, that would be equal to a little more than 35 tons.

I'd guess that that might cause a little damage to sidewalks, lawns, parked cars, random heads...

Reckless endangerment, at least.

What a fool.

[Drew68]

"I've done it before from the eighth floor. No one's going to get hurt."

I used to work on the eighth floor of a 10-story office building. There was a trash dumpster directly below the balcony where we would take our smoke breaks. Every sunday was trash day and the big bag of garbage would have to be taken down to the dumpster below via elevator.

I stumbled upon an idea...

Nailing the dumpster with a bag full of trash from eight floors is a lot harder than it looks but after some practice, I had it down perfectly.

The few times I missed, I would dutifully go down and clean every last scrap. Oh, and there was no entrance and no conceivable way anyone could have been hurt.

[supercat]

(100 lbs.) X (6 X 12') X (9.8 ft/second) = 70,560 pounds of impact force.

Methinks your physics is a little odd, there. Impact force depends upon many factors, including the extent to which the couch compresses or shatters (it will almost certainly do both to a substantial extent).

I'd guess that that might cause a little damage to sidewalks, lawns, parked cars, random heads...

Was there anything besides dirt and grass anywhere the couch could hit? I would expect a couch could make a noticeable dent in the ground, but depending upon what was there it may or may not be considered 'damage'.

[lepton]

(100 lbs.) X (6 X 12') X (9.8 ft/second)

What are the numbers you are using?

What's 100 lbs? what's 6'x12'? What's 9.8 ft/sec?

Couches tend to be a couple hundred pounds at least.
Largest surface area of impact would be 6'x2'.
Acceleration on earth is 32 feet per second, per second.

[WorkingClassFilth]

100 lbs. is the arbitrary weight of a cheap couch. I should have said 9.8 meters/second and added a conversion factor. The (6 X 12) figure is the usual height of a commercial building. An apartment building has a 3-4 foot recess for all of the mechanicals abouve the living space.

In any event, this chick is nuts.

[Slings and Arrows]

The force on the couch was just the earth's gravitational force. What you're after is kinetic energy: 1/2*mass*(velocity^2) Force accelerates mass; kinetic energy does the OUCH!-ing part.

[kitkat]

Women just don't have any sense today! Jeans and a GRAY T-SHIRT. YUCK! Now, if she had been wearing something complementary to the couch, I might cut her some slack. But, as it is, ARREST HER.

[visualops]

You've got to be kidding me!
Dropping/throwing furniture off a 6th story balcony doesn't meet your criteria for dangerously reckless?
What would? If it was an anvil or piano? What sort of cartoon world do you live in where throwing furniture off a balcony is acceptable and harmless?
The article doesn't mention any extenuating circumstances; no defense, no team of "spotters", no one yelling "look out below". The housing cop plainly and simply saw her throwing the sofa out.

[Xenalyte]

What a hillbilly!

With a name like Kisha, I'm pretty sure she's not a hillbilly.

[LibertyGirl77]

Sounds like college! There was always furniture flying around my college campus. Once, when I was studying, I saw a couch whiz by my window. It didn't even register until several seconds later. I also saw people throwing chairs from upper levels to the dumpsters below on multiple occasions. Once it was a television, and another time a clothes dryer, which seemed slightly less safe, but hey, you know, whatever. It was college.

[Wil H]

It's POTENTIALLY dangerous for sure. But if no one was there below then no one was recklessly endangered were they?

If you fire a gun at a firing range it's safe, if you fire it in a crowded street it isn't. It depends on the situation. If the police can't point to specific persons that were endangered I say they don't have a case.

I maybe wrong, but I don't think you can be charged with endangering the community at large