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Prosecutors have charged two men with minor offenses and accused them of BASE jumping from the LDS Church Office Building last year.
Marshall Miller, 32, and Hartman Rector, 28, each were charged Wednesday with a count of trespassing and a count of disturbing the peace. The counts are infractions, each punishable by a fine of up to $750.
Both men denied jumping from the building when interviewed separately by The Tribune in December.
On the afternoon of Nov. 12, surveillance cameras captured two men with large backpacks riding the elevator to the office building's 26th-floor observation deck. Witnesses on the street then reported seeing two men parachuting to the ground. Witnesses said the jumpers left in a silver Toyota sports-utility vehicle.
Salt Lake City police released a report saying that after news reports of the jumps someone called a police dispatcher and said "it sounded like an acquaintance who drives a similar vehicle. He provided me with the name of Marshall Miller. Marshall Miller is the registered owner of a Toyota Tundra."
The report, which The Tribune obtained through a request under state law, said church security were compiling a DVD of all the camera footage of the jumps.
Scott Fisher, the acting Salt Lake City prosecutor, said Friday he believes the charges will have a deterrent effect on others wanting to jump in the city. Salt Lake City has no ordinance prohibiting BASE jumping, but police have called it dangerous.
"We're using the tools we have available," Fisher said.
Rector, who is the grandson of an LDS Church general authority emeritus of the same first and last name, also told The Tribune he had never jumped with Miller, though videos posted online show the two men together BASE jumping from a cliff. Labels with the video say the jump occurred January 2010 at a site in Utah.
BASE is an acronym for building, antenna, span or earth, which are the types of objects from which jumps occur.
Miller has videos on the Internet showing him jumping from cliffs and bridges in the western United States and Switzerland. He made some of his jumps in a winged jumpsuit that allows him to better guide his descent. There are far fewer videos of Rector.
The charges against Miller and Rector were filed in Salt Lake City Justice Court. Fisher said Miller is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 31 and Rector on Feb. 2.
Earlier in the week, federal prosecutors charged a woman with a misdemeanor count of creating a hazard for allegedly BASE jumping from a cliff onto State Road 128 near Moab.