People v. Jester CA6

I. Background

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer Ben Grasmuck was on patrol in Big Sur around 4:45 p.m. on December 8, 2010. He was traveling north on Highway 1 when he came upon defendant and another man standing on the shoulder in the middle of the Bixby Bridge. Defendant was lowering something over the west side of the bridge as the other man video recorded his actions. Grasmuck believed that defendant was about to bungee jump from the bridge. He radioed for backup, stopped his patrol vehicle, activated its emergency lights, and told defendant over the P.A. system, “ ‘Don’t even think about it’ . . . . ‘Pull your crap up.’ ” As Grasmuck got out of his vehicle, defendant “jumped up on the bridge railing,” lost his balance and fell back onto the roadway, and then climbed up again. It “looked like he was going to parachute off the bridge.” Grasmuck put up his hand to stop an approaching pickup truck because he “was worried about [defendant] falling backwards in front of that truck.” “I was concerned about his safety. I was concerned about traffic safety. I didn’t know what the guy with the camera 2 was going to do.” Grasmuck told…