2 Snowboarders Ordered to Pay $7,000 Toward Cost of Rescue

Two snowboarders who purposely skied out of bounds and touched off a massive rescue effort last winter were ordered to pay $7,000 in restitution Tuesday.

Municipal Judge Barbara Lee Burke sentenced Claudio Maluje, 28, and Patrick Jenks, 24, for knowingly snowboarding out of bounds.

Their disappearance in February set off a search lasting more than 24 hours in which the two men were tracked through ravines around the Snow Crest ski resort 30 miles north of Glendale. About 65 volunteers and police and fire department searchers, as well as a county helicopter, were involved.

Burke also sentenced the two men to two years’ probation.

Prosecutors asked for restitution of $23,000 to pay the entire cost of the search and recovery effort. The men could have been sentenced to as much as six months in jail and a $10,000 fine.

“The lesson of this incident is, whenever people’s lives are being placed in jeopardy by your own intentional, illegal acts, it’s not going to be a free ride,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bruce Warner. “They are not criminals. But we couldn’t allow this to go unpunished. The taxpayers of the county deserved to be recompensed.”

Under Burke’s ruling, the trespassing convictions will be dismissed if the men show proof of payment by March 1999, court officials said. The fine was imposed jointly, court officials said.

Maluje of North Hollywood and Jenks of Glendale could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But the two contended that bad weather and a lack of boundary markers and warning signs at Snow Crest resulted in their unknowingly leaving the snowboarding area.

Both were convicted by a jury in July.