CORONA — The public school teacher and photographer arrested for crashing his drone at the U.S. Open was just trying to figure out how to use the futuristic tool for later use in his classroom, his lawyer said.
Daniel Verley, 26, whose drone crashed into an empty section of the Louis Armstrong Stadium stands in the middle of a match between Monica Niculescu and Flavia Pennetta at about 7:45 p.m. on Sept. 3, had been practicing driving the plane in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, his lawyer said.
Verley was trying to capture photos of the famed Unisphere using a GoPro camera attached to a new drone when the drone malfunctioned and Verley lost connection as the plane flew near a canopy of trees, according to lawyer D. Andrew Marshall and the criminal complaint.
"Certainly there was nothing malicious in what he was doing," Marshall explained "Ultimately his goal was to try to figure out how he could utilize the drone to incorporate it into his teaching curriculum."
Verley, who teaches science at the Academy of Innovative Technology in Brooklyn, was arraigned on Sept. 16 on charges of reckless endangerment.
"The fact of the matter is — he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Marshall said. "It would not have been much of an issue but for the fact that it was the US Open going on."
Pennetta went on to win the women's portion of the U.S. Open last week.
