Photo: Deer Valley Resort
An altercation at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort has resulted in a skier being charged with aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, which is a second-degree felony in the Beehive State. According to KSL News, who shared a short blurb from the local law enforcement’s charging documents, the ordeal stemmed from one skier cutting off another on the slopes.
Paul Howard Kaufman, 63, from Connecticut, reportedly accused another skier in his 60s of cutting him off on the slopes, which sparked an argument between the two. Kaufman then tackled the man who’d cut him off, who still had his skis on.
The victim “felt a pop in his knee when he fell to the snow with (Kauffman) on top of him. (He) suffered a multidirectional tear of the medial meniscus, an ACL tear, a partial tear of the fibular collateral ligament, a grade 2 chondral fissuring of the patella median ridge, and a minimally impacted fracture involving the posterior portion of the lateral tibial plateau,” according to KSL Radio.
According to Snowbrains, Kaufman could be facing serious consequences if found guilty. The maximum penalty for aggravated assault resulting in serious injury is “an indeterminate prison term of up to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000.”
Altercations at ski resorts aren’t uncommon and they’re prone to result in criminal or civil charges when one person is injured. In 2023, for example, a chairlift fight at Park City went viral. In that incident, one of the two men was charged with assault, a class B misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor.
