Firm Denies Providing Handlers in Fatal Stunt

The stage manager for a San Fernando Valley company that arranged the fatal bungee jumping exhibition for last Sunday’s Super Bowl denied Wednesday that his firm was responsible for the selection of undertrained workers who may have assisted in the jumps.

Wally Pinn of Branam Enterprises in San Fernando said Select Productions, a Tustin-based firm responsible for producing the halftime show at the football game, provided rigging handlers who were holding the ropes of the jumper who was killed during a rehearsal.

He said Branam provided the equipment, the jumpers and some handlers. Pinn said there was nothing wrong with Branam’s equipment or personnel.

Repeated efforts to reach Select Productions were unsuccessful.

Lora “Dinky” Patterson, 41, of Sarasota, Fla., one of eight jumpers, died when her rope extended too far and she hit the ground. According to news reports, one volunteer handler said that Branam assigned him and other volunteers to hold the ropes for the jumpers and that he received about two minutes of training.

Pinn said Branam would never use untrained volunteers for such an important job. He said his firm had trained some of the handlers for the jumps.

“But on [the Patterson] jump, the Branam handlers were not involved,” Pinn said.

New Orleans Police Lt. Marlon Defillo said investigators still are trying to determine the cause of the accident.