Meanwhile, state, county and municipal officials are still investigating the circumstances surrounding Michael A. Rathgeber's death the morning of July 25.

Albert Mazurkiewicz, the owner of Florida Amusements, the Miami-based company that operates the slide, said the blame lies with the deceased and his friends. Rathgeber, Mazurkiewicz said, was trespassing.

City attorney James Aaron agreed. "The individual was a trespasser, in our opinion," Aaron said. "The rides were closed."

Rathgeber "had no business going near or on the rides at that hour of the morning, since he knew or should have known that the rides were unsupervised at that time," Aaron said.

Rathgeber was fatally injured between 3 and 4 a.m. when he went down the 20-foot-high, 62-foot-long slide hours after park employees had shut down the ride. Rathgeber struck his abdomen on a chain that hooked across the slide about 5 feet from the bottom, Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter Warshaw Jr. said.

Warshaw said he would not speculate as to whether Rathgeber was trespassing.

"A notice against trespassing must be given by communication, posting or sufficient fencing, and it's an arguable issue as to whether any of those had occurred," Warshaw said.

As a result of striking the chain, Rathgeber suffered a lacerated liver and lost a lot of blood, authorities said.

He died after being taken to the regional trauma center at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, where doctors operated on him around 4:30 a.m.

Rathgeber's sister, Malissa, who had planned to meet him at a club in Asbury Park, and their mother, Lori, were with him when he died at 9:15.

"Two hours after he passed away, my mom still stayed next to him," said Malissa, 22. "I was in denial. I thought I was having a bad dream and I was going to wake up in my bed.

"When I heard they took him to the hospital after he went down the slide, I figured my brother got the wind knocked out of him," she said. "I figured it was no big deal, that I would go and get him and bring him back."

Since October, Rathgeber, a 1996 graduate of Ocean County Vocational-Technical High School, and attended college in Colorado for photo journalism, and played the bass guitar, had traveled to Asbury Park each Friday night to spend time at Club Method, an after-hours dance club, his sister said. At the club, which does not serve alcohol, he often was joined by dozens of friends, his sister said.

Lenny Sanchez, 17, of Toms River, who called Rathgeber his best friend, said they drove to ther club, on Ocean and Fourth avenues, three blocks north of where the slide is situated on the boardwalk, with Brandon Spodeck, 23, of Toms River.

"We passed the slide and Brandon was like: 'That slide's been there a couple of weeks. We should go down,' " Sanchez said. "Mike said, 'Yeah.' "

They arrived at Club Method around 11 p.m., Sanchez said.

Rathgeber didn't like the music the disc jockey was playing, so he spent most of the night outside talking with other patrons, friends said.

"I saw him about 12:30 (a.m.), and that was the last time we saw him," said Carmine Diaz, 19, of Berkeley. "He went for a walk and on the slide with his friend, Tim."

Mike and Tim went on the slide together, Malissa said. Neither she nor Rathgeber's friends who were interviewed knew Tim's last name, they said.

"Mike hit the chain and Tim heard the impact," Malissa said. "He didn't know what it was my brother hit, so he stopped himself. Tim's feet hit the chain."

Tim sat Rathgeber on a nearby bench before running to Club Method to summon help, Malissa said.

"Michael was blacking out and having trouble breathing, but he had no marks or bruises. He wasn't bleeding," Malissa said Tim told her. "Tim thought Michael just had the wind knocked out of him."

A policeman on routine patrol saw people on the boardwalk and was told someone had been injured, authorities said. The officer investigated and called an ambulance.

After learning that her brother had been hurt and taken to Jersey Shore, Malissa left Club Method and hurried to her brother's side.

"When I got to the hospital, they said they rushed him to the operating room because he had internal bleeding," Malissa said. "I started freaking out." Malissa said she called their mother at the family's Island Heights home and told her to get to the hospital as fast as she could. Mrs. Rathgeber took her younger daughter, Sarah, 11, to a friend's home and drove to the hospital.

"Michael was unbelievably close to my mom, since my parents divorced when he was 4 or 5 years old," Malissa said. "He was her best friend."

The children's father, Michael J. Rathgeber, lives in Cape Cod, Mass. Michael also had a younger sister, Sarah, 11, who lives with Malissa and their mother.

Their mother is so distraught over Michael's death that she has been unable to speak with anyone, Malissa said.

"She just wants him with her," said Malissa, who explained that is why her mother chose to have Michael cremated.

"She bought a beautiful box to keep his ashes in," Malissa said. "My sister and I are each getting a locket for his ashes.

"The last thing I said to him was, 'Mike I love you, and Sarah loves you too,' " Malissa said. "He shook his head and I said, 'You're going to be OK.' And he shook his head again."

The slide Rathgeber rode to his death has multiple side-by-side chutes. It is part of a mobile amusement park which travels the East Coast, Mazurkiewicz said.

Christopher Wolf, spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs, said Mazurkiewicz was granted a permit to operate the slide in New Jersey on July 7. Mazurkiewicz said he had leased the Asbury Park site for the summer season and hoped to establish a permanent amusement park on the boardwalk in the future.

The slide was manufactured in 1983 by Childress Inc., South Carolina. Mazurkiewicz said the chain that Rathgeber struck is hooked across the slide at closing to prevent people from walking up the chutes. He said a barricade is placed at the bottom of the steps that lead to the top of the slide.

Anne McHugh, a Princeton attorney who specializes in amusement park litigation, said accidents such as the one that killed Rathgeber might be prevented by stricter regulation of mobile carnivals.

"If they are going into a community to set up shop, they ought to have some way of insulating the rides from kids," McHugh said. "After all, boys will be boys and teen-age boys will be teen-age boys."

Mazurkiewicz's rides, which include a revolving swing and a kiddie ride, are open from 2 to 11 p.m. daily and are not fenced in.

Wolf said the state has no such requirements.

"The only time fencing is required is fencing that prevents intrusion while a ride is operating," Wolf said. "Encircling a group of rides -- that is not required at this time."

New Jersey's laws are typical of those throughout the country, said Robert Johnson, executive director of Outdoor Amusement Business Association, a Minneapolis-based trade association.

On Monday, the Department of Community Affairs shut the park to investigate the accident and found that three of the rides were operating without state permits, Wolf said. The slide had the necessary permits.

Mazurkiewicz, who makes his home in Miami, was fined $15,000 -- $5,000 for each ride cited, Wolf said.

"I'm fighting that in court," Mazurkiewicz said yesterday. "The rides in question were registered."

Mazurkiewicz said he has complied with all governmental regulations.

The park opened again on Wednesday, but the three rides remained closed. Mazurkiewicz was first licensed to operate rides in the state in 1977 and had never been cited for violations before, Wolf said.

Mazurkiewicz said he has 24-hour security for his rides, but he said he didn't know where his employee was when Rathgeber and his friend rode down the slide. He would not provide the employee's name.

Aaron suggested that Rathgeber "may have been impaired" when he decided to ride the slide. Warshaw, of the prosecutor's office, said routine toxicology tests will be conducted as part of the investigation. Results will be available in about five weeks, he said.

Rathgeber's sister Malissa and several of his friends said he did not drink alcohol.

"He was extremely against alcohol," said Dana Fenwicki, 19, of Point Pleasant. "He didn't do drugs." Source: Asbury Park Press Published: August 02, 1998

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