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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/15027772.htm
Prank victim says perpetrator got off too lightly
FIREFIGHTER TO SERVE HIS 60-DAY SENTENCE ON WORK FURLOUGH
By Luke Stangel
Daily News Group
A veteran Menlo Park firefighter who pleaded no contest to charges that he stretched a rope across the road and clotheslined his friend on a motorcycle during a prank gone wrong will begin a 60-day work furlough program this month after hammering out a plea deal with the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.
In a separate lawsuit settled out of court last month, the firefighter, Ross Frazee, 41, agreed to pay David Elven $250,000 in damages and give him two motorcycles and a concrete pumper, worth $50,000.
In a similar case, three people in Los Gatos are awaiting trial on charges that they put their neighbor in a coma for five days after pulling a rope across the road as he rode by on a dirt bike. The three are facing up to eight years in prison if convicted.
Frazee worked out a plea deal last year that reduced his two felony assault charges to a single misdemeanor charge, punishable by three years' probation, a $110 fine and a 60-day jail sentence, starting July 29.
``Because he's a fireman, he got away with it,'' Elven said. ``Watch the case'' in Los Gatos ``that's happening right now. I don't think they're going to get away with it. But it's not the same. He's a fireman; they'll sweep it under the carpet. He got off easy.''
But Frazee said his plea deal had nothing to do with his having spent 15 years with the Menlo Park Fire Department.
``I felt terrible over the whole thing,'' Frazee said from Menlo Park Fire Station 77, where he still works. ``I didn't take any of this lightly and I know that I'm not the victim. He was. I didn't take this lightly at all, regardless of what his feelings are, like I'm over here skating.
``I am extremely apologetic. I couldn't say that I was sorry enough. I didn't mean to hurt a friend.''
On May 12, 2005, about 8 p.m., Elven was riding his sport motorcycle 30 to 35 mph in the parking lot outside his concrete pumping business in industrial Menlo Park, near the Redwood City border.
Frazee says he intended for Elven, his friend for 10 years, to see the pink nylon rope strung across the parking lot and ride under it, like crossing a finish line. Elven didn't see the rope, which hit him in the neck.
George Oldham, the Sequoia Hospital emergency room doctor who treated Elven, said the rope could have crushed his Adam's apple and killed him.
``I'm surprised that there wasn't more damage to the throat,'' Oldham e-mailed Elven's wife the week of the accident.
Frazee originally was arrested on suspicion of two felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon. He agreed in late September to plead no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge.
Today, Elven has a 3/4-inch white scar around most of his neck.
``I have a scar for life. It's with me every day. I look in the mirror and there it is. I hate it,'' Elven said.
Wednesday, Elven and his friend, Anthony Rogge, drained the oil in the two motorcycles Frazee was ordered to hand over in the civil settlement. Elven said he knew taking his former friend's motorcycles, a silver 2002 Harley Davidson and red 1996 Honda CBR sport bike, would hurt him most.
``I don't care about them,'' Elven said of the two motorcycles. ``I'm going to sell them. You want to buy one?''
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