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This Article is From Feb 28, 2017

Man Who Scaled New York's Trump Tower Pleads Guilty To Charges

Man Who Scaled New York's Trump Tower Pleads Guilty To Charges
A man climbed the outside of Trump Tower in New York. (Reuters)
NEW YORK: A 19-year-old Donald Trump supporter who climbed 21 floors of Trump Tower in New York last August using suction cups and a harness, pleaded guilty on Monday to reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, a prosecutor's spokesman said.

Stephen Rogata of Great Falls, Virginia, had a three-hour televised standoff with police at the 58-story tower on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, which was the Republican's election campaign headquarters for the November 8 vote that put him in the White House.

A spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney's office said on Monday that under Rogata's plea deal he was to have no contact with President Trump.

"As part of the plea agreement, he has to continue mental health treatment, he has to stay in school or maintain employment for the next year, and have no new arrest for the next year," the spokesman said.

He said Rogata could face up to a year in prison if he were unable to abide by the conditions of his plea deal. But compliance would allow him to withdraw his guilty plea for reckless endangerment, leaving him only with a disorderly conduct charge.

A representative for Rogata did not immediately respond to a request for contact.

As Rogata scaled the tower's glass exterior last Aug. 10, police removed large window panes above him as several officers, some in helmets, stood at the windows watching him. It had previously been reported that Rogata was 20 years old.

Rogata shifted his route several times in what appeared to be an attempt to get around the officers before he was yanked into a window and arrested.

New York Police Department officials told a news conference later that day that Rogata did not express a desire to harm anyone, and that his only mission was to meet with Trump.

"The reason I climbed your tower was to get your attention," Rogata said in a video uploaded to YouTube before his climb.
© Thomson Reuters 2017


(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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