Teen pleads guilty in WTC climb
NEW YORK — A teenage daredevil who sneaked to the top of the 1 World Trade Center tower pleaded guilty Wednesday in an escapade that fanned concerns about security at the nation’s tallest building.
Justin Casquejo admitted breaking a city misdemeanor law against scaling tall buildings without permission. He’s expecting a sentence of 23 days of community service for his March climb, which came about a week before three extreme-skydiving enthusiasts were arrested on charges of parachuting off the skyscraper.
Casquejo, 16, of Weehawken, N.J., is due to be sentenced in September.
Casquejo slipped through a small gap in a construction fence and then used a ladder, scaffolding, elevators and stairs to scale the unfinished tower early on March 16. Along the way, he got by an inattentive security guard.
After spending about two hours atop the symbolic 1,776-foot-tall tower, Casquejo encountered a guard as he descended.
After Casquejo’s climb and the skydivers’ arrests, Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to deepen the city’s work with the Port Authority to safeguard the site, and Sen. Charles Schumer called for federal officials to review security there.
The building’s private head of security resigned, the guard Casquejo eluded was fired and the Port Authority brought in a company that guards its airports to handle security.
