Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
8/13/11 9:49 a.m.

Robert "Sandy" Vietze got into a we bit of trouble when a pissed off father found him relieving himself on an 11 year old girl. It looks like his career has rally gone down hill.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/skiing/story/_/id/6856362/us-skier-robert-sandy-vietze-dismissed-report-urinating-passenger

NEW YORK -- A teen skier accused of getting drunk and then urinating in the cabin of a JetBlue flight was dismissed from the U.S. Ski Team's development squad.

Robert "Sandy" Vietze, of Warren, Vt., was detained by police at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday morning after arriving on a red-eye flight from Portland, Ore.

Police accused Vietze of urinating on a 12-year-old girl on the plane. But a lawyer for the girl's family later denied that account, saying he urinated on the floor next to her.

Vietze, 18, faces a federal misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn.

U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association executive vice president of athletics Luke Bodensteiner said in an email sent to The Associated Press on Friday: "Based on the information we have, Sandy Vietze is in violation of the USSA code of conduct and team agreement and has been dismissed from the team."

The AP's attempts to reach Vietze and his parents for comment have been unsuccessful. The phone has been ringing unanswered at the family's home since Thursday, when the New York Post first reported the story.

Vietze was nominated to the development team this spring after excelling as an alpine skier at the Green Mountain Valley School, a top ski academy and high school in Waitsfield, Vt., where tuition runs as much as $42,384 per year. He had been scheduled to compete on the national ski team's developmental squad for the 2011-12 season.

A Port Authority Police Department detective wrote in court documents that Vietze told him he had consumed five or six beers and two rum and cola cocktails before boarding the flight. He said he passed out in his seat and awoke to find himself being yelled at by the father of a 12-year-old girl.

According to the police account, the girl's father told the detective that when he returned from a trip to the bathroom at 2:30 a.m., he found Vietze urinating on his daughter. A lawyer for the girl's family, Robert Harris, contacted the AP on Friday evening and said the young man "did not urinate on their daughter, he urinated on the floor next to her seat."

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which runs area transit hubs, initially told the AP and other news outlets Thursday that federal prosecutors had decided to drop the indecent exposure charge, but a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, Robert Nardoza, said Friday that the case was pending.

The charge carries a maximum fine of $1,000 and a possibility of up to a year in jail, although time behind bars would be very unusual in such a case.

JetBlue Airways Corp. is based in New York.

JoeyM
JoeyM SuperDork
8/13/11 11:06 a.m.
Stealthtercel
Stealthtercel HalfDork
8/13/11 12:38 p.m.

I never went to journalism school, so could somebody please explain what in the name of Walter Cronkite is the point of telling me in the last line of that story that JetBlue Airways Corp. is based in New York? Who gives a flying Wartburg where their head office is? How does this help the reader understand what happened?

EastCoastMojo
EastCoastMojo GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
8/13/11 12:54 p.m.

Gee. Whiz.

Toyman01
Toyman01 GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
8/13/11 1:58 p.m.
EastCoastMojo wrote: Gee. Whiz.

I see what you did there.

carguy123
carguy123 SuperDork
8/13/11 4:09 p.m.

Here are some key elements to this story as I see it (direct from the article.

A teen skier . . . had consumed five or six beers and two rum and cola cocktails before boarding the flight.

Now am I the only one to see anything wrong with those facts?

oldtin
oldtin Dork
8/13/11 4:33 p.m.

If it's true on the black out, that wouldn't have been his first time out and about with a few drinks. $43,000 for tuition for him, parents must be proud.

mad_machine
mad_machine GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
8/13/11 5:03 p.m.

I was thinking how proud his parents must be too... I would not want to go home to them after that

carguy123
carguy123 SuperDork
8/13/11 5:12 p.m.
oldtin wrote: If it's true on the black out, that wouldn't have been his first time out and about with a few drinks.

And therein is the problem.

sachilles
sachilles Dork
8/15/11 9:33 a.m.

Yep, dude is from my town. Making us proud . Went to the local ski academy.

cardiacdog
cardiacdog Reader
8/15/11 11:15 a.m.

Who was serving the 18 yo beer and rum before the flight? Someone's going to get fired for that part of this story.

oldtin
oldtin Dork
8/15/11 11:21 a.m.
sachilles wrote: Yep, dude is from my town. Making us proud . Went to the local ski academy.

Just curious, wealthy family or putting it on the line for the kid?

sachilles
sachilles Dork
8/15/11 11:35 a.m.

Probably some where in the middle. The school does have a wide variety of folks from different economic backgrounds.

turboswede
turboswede GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
8/15/11 3:43 p.m.

Drinks were probably prepared and consumed at a friend's place before heading to the airport. By the time he was on the plane the alcohol had taken full effect and he was completely blotto.

Basically, he was an idiot, like so many other kids at that age. He just got caught being stupid in a a very public way.....

There will certainly be repercussions for this guy and whomever provided the alcohol.

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