Charges Dropped In Skiing Fatality
Breckenridge Death Triggers Suit By Kin

The Denver Post
March 7, 2003
Section: DENVER AND WEST, Page: B-01
By Steve Lipsher, Denver Post Mountain Bureau

BRECKENRIDGE—Summit County officials on Thursday dropped all criminal charges against a Briton involved in a fatal ski collision, even as the victim's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court.

Robert Wills, 30, of Plymouth, England, was released from the Summit County Jail immediately after District Attorney Mark Hurlbert announced that he would not pursue a case, terming the crash a "horrible, horrible accident." Meanwhile, the family of Richard Henrichs filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court in Denver, accusing Wills of skiing recklessly and negligently in causing the death and seeking an undisclosed amount of money.

"This is not a family that's seeking retribution or vengeance," said family attorney James Chalat, one of the nation's leading authorities in ski-safety law. "The civil-justice system provides a remedy for someone who is wronged. He suffered a wrongful death. Just because an accident happens doesn't mean that it's nobody's fault."

Wills, who reclaimed his passport and was said to be heading home, denied repeated interview requests and left the courthouse through a side door after being released from jail. "The events of last Sunday were a tragic accident," according to a statement released by his attorney, Pamela Mackey, who had not yet heard about the civil suit when contacted. "Mr. Wills deeply regrets the accident. Mr. Wills and his family are keeping the Henrichs family in their thoughts and prayers."

Wills and Henrichs collided Sunday afternoon on the beginner-rated Falcon Access ski run at Breckenridge, sending Henrichs crashing into a lone tree in the middle of the slope. The 56-year-old from Naperville, Ill., suffered a severe concussion, several broken ribs, internal injuries and a broken hip. Wills initially was held by the Summit County Sheriff's Department on suspicion of assault and reckless endangerment, and those charges were modified to criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter after Henrichs died at Swedish Medical Center.

"We (initially) thought that Mr. Wills was going exceedingly fast and that he may have been in kind of a crouch, almost a tuck," Hurlbert said. But witnesses, including his friend from England, Brendan Waivish, denied that Wills was skiing out of control or faster than convention. And Hurlbert said authorities had difficulty determining if Wills was the uphill skier—and therefore legally responsible for avoiding Henrichs—or if they merely collided shoulder-to-shoulder at a point where two ski runs merged.

"We don't really have enough evidence to show that he was skiing recklessly," Hurlbert said. The victim's son, Ryan Henrichs, who was with him at the time, told authorities that Wills was skiing twice as fast as his father and hit him from behind so hard that he was knocked out of his skis. "From the reports that we have seen, it appears that Mr. Wills was going far too fast and skiing recklessly, which caused the death of Mr. Henrichs," said Russell Hatten, a partner in Chalat's law firm, which handles more ski-injury cases than any other in the nation.

Although the standard of proof required in a civil case is much lower than in a criminal case, the fact that Wills lives overseas and has limited assets may add to the difficulty for the Henrichs family in winning a sizable judgment. A mechanic with a company called LTC Scaffolding, Wills told authorities for his booking report that he makes $1,500 a month, has no car and owes $50,000 on a $100,000 home that he bought last year.

Resort officials noted that fatal collisions are very rare on the slopes, statistically occurring only once for every 23 million skier visits. "Skier and snowboarder safety is of paramount importance to Vail Resorts," Breckenridge chief operating officer Roger McCarthy said in a statement. "Our company is committed to setting high standards of safety awareness and education in all areas of operations. "Only two previous cases have even warranted consideration of felony charges, Hurlbert said.

The same 5th Judicial District attorney's office successfully prosecuted Nathan Hall, a Vail ski-area employee, in the 1997 death of Denver woodworker Alan Cobb. But Hurlbert pointed out that several witnesses said Hall, an expert skier, clearly and intentionally was out of control, far different from this case."It was a tough decision," Hurlbert said. "You're looking at both sides. On one hand, you have a man who's dead because of the actions of another man. Whether it was an accident, intentional, reckless, criminally negligent - whatever—he is dead because of those actions. On the other side, you have to look at this man in this situation and what were his actions beforehand. I feel confident I made the right decision. It's something I agonized over."

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