Connecticut man charged with assaulting skier at Deer Valley

PARK CITY — An argument at a Park City ski resort has resulted in a felony charge for a Connecticut man accused of tackling another skier while the victim was still in his skis.

Paul Howard Kauffman, 63, of Wilton, Connecticut, was charged Wednesday in Summit County’s 3rd District Court with aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, a second-degree felony.

Kauffman got into an argument with another man while on a ski slope at Deer Valley Resort on March 15, according to charging documents. Park City police say Kauffman accused another skier, a man in his 60s who also does not live in Utah, of cutting him off.

Kauffman then allegedly tackled the man while the victim still had his skis on.

The victim “felt a pop in his knee when he fell to the snow with (Kauffman) on top of him. (He) suffered a multidirectional tear of the medial meniscus, an ACL tear, a partial tear of the fibular collateral ligament, a grade 2 chondral fissuring of the patella median ridge, and a minimally impacted fracture involving the posterior portion of the lateral tibial plateau,” the charging documents state.