Breaking Law Is No Walk in Park

[OnTop_of_Poo]

Los Angeles Times

December 12, 2004

 

Breaking Law Is No Walk in Park

Some Yosemite visitors and workers say rangers can be overzealous in enforcing rules. Officials say their good deeds far exceed any lapses.

By Julie Cart

Times Staff Writer

 

December 13, 2004

 

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — The evening had begun so well. After wine and dinner at the elegant Ahwahnee Hotel last year, Australian tourists Margaret and Andre Vischer stepped into the frigid High Sierra night and into their rental car.

 

As they drove through the first dark intersection, neither of them noticed the park ranger's vehicle. Andre, 58, recalled seeing a stop sign and lightly touching the brakes but not coming to a full stop.

 

After they were pulled over by the rangers, Vischer said he told them about the bottle of wine he and his wife had shared during their four-hour dinner. Both Vischers were given Breathalyzer tests. Andre's blood alcohol registered .08, the minimum at which a person is considered legally drunk. Margaret tested at .06.

 

Andre was frisked, handcuffed, read his rights and taken away by two rangers. Another ranger drove the couple's rental car while Margaret remained at the side of the road where a male ranger frisked her, handcuffed her and took her to Yosemite's small jail to spend the night.

There, she was fingerprinted, photographed, questioned and told to strip, shower and put on an orange jumpsuit.

 

When Margaret asked why she was being jailed even though her blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit and she was not driving, she said rangers told her they considered her a danger to herself and others. The next day she was released without being charged.

 

The couple spent Margaret's 60th birthday a few days later at the park's federal courthouse, where Andre pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and paid a $2,500 fine.

 

"The whole thing was totally intimidating and humiliating and totally unnecessary," Margaret Vischer said in a recent telephone interview from the couple's home in Sydney.

 

Cam Sholly, Yosemite's deputy chief ranger, said the decision to arrest Margaret Vischer was discretionary. "This was a fine line between taking someone into custody for their own safety and releasing someone whose judgment is impaired to a degree that they could be a danger to

themselves," he said.

 

But Margaret Vischer's story has a familiar ring to other visitors, employees and defense attorneys with similar accounts of alleged overzealous policing in a place where people come to relax and expect to be treated like guests. Most of the people who have questioned the conduct of park rangers acknowledged doing something out of line. Nonetheless, they contend that the treatment by park rangers was out of proportion to the minor infractions they committed and out of place in a national park.

 

Beth Shilliday, a 35-year-old assignment editor for KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles, said she was treated for a concussion and bruises after rangers threw her to the ground while arresting her on suspicion of drunk driving and possession of a small amount of marijuana. Her car and others

were stopped during a search for a missing child in August.

 

Park officials told The Times, which like KTLA-TV is owned by the Tribune Co., that Shilliday was intoxicated and uncooperative, and whatever injuries she suffered she caused herself. Shilliday has pleaded not guilty and her case is pending in Yosemite's federal court. Meanwhile, the park

has launched an internal investigation into the rangers' behavior.

 

Leah Sesto, an 18-year-old clerk in the park in 2000, said she was dragged out of bed by rangers and arrested on suspicion of being drunk a few hours after friends had escorted her to her room. "It was the first time I'd ever had anything to drink," said Sesto, who described herself as "a goody-goody church kid."

 

She pleaded guilty to being under the influence of alcohol.

 

Interviewed at the park, Yosemite Supt. Mike Tollefson vigorously defended his rangers, saying their daily unheralded efforts to save lives and keep the park and visitors safe far outstrip occasional judgment errors.

 

"I would adamantly disagree that there is a zero tolerance policy in this park," Tollefson said. "We certainly have problems periodically. Of the complaints we get, law enforcement is the minority, but we take those the most seriously."

 

Despite its bucolic setting amid towering granite walls and waterfalls, Yosemite National Park is subject to the same social ills that police contend with elsewhere. In the mid-1980s, a report from the Interior Department's inspector general found a prostitution ring operating at the Ahwahnee Hotel and estimated that 85% of the park's commercial workforce used illegal drugs.

 

Five years ago, three tourists and a nature guide were slain just outside the park. In October, a manhunt for another multiple killer led to a remote section of the park where the suspect started a 2,000-acre fire before fatally shooting himself.

 

"If you let your guard down, we might lose a ranger here in Yosemite. I don't want that to happen," Sholly said.

 

Today, 50 full-time rangers are responsible for enforcing the law in the 1,200-square-mile park. They deal with assaults, thefts, arson, illegal hunting and vandalism. Park officials said there have been more than 4,600 citations this year and 306 arrests, higher than last year's tally but well below the record high of 846 arrests in 1992.

 

Tollefson said he stresses the importance of getting out of patrol cars and interacting more with visitors. "Our job here is to educate and to articulate why the park is important," he said.

 

Yet much of the criticism of law enforcement practices in the park centers on the way rangers respond to people who question why they're being stopped.

 

"One of the things I see as a pattern is people being arrested for mouthing off to rangers," said Carrie Leonetti, an assistant federal public defender who represents people arrested in the park. "Time and time again I have clients tell me that they are arrested for asking questions such as, 'Am I being detained?' "

 

John Reynolds, former director of the Park Service's Western region, which includes Yosemite, said in a recent interview that the park has long had a reputation for no-nonsense policing.

 

"Yosemite was upsetting from a number of points of view," said Reynolds, who resigned in 2000. "There was a fair amount of concern — unsubstantiated concern — at the regional office level."

 

Employees of the park's concessionaire say rangers shadow them waiting for the slightest infraction and talk about "sleeping with one eye open." Climbers who gather here to scale the park's famous granite walls joke about "getting tooled in the Valley."

 

Tollefson acknowledged there have been conflicts with climbers, whom he said "are at the edge in a variety of ways."

 

A chat room on a website for park rangers offers a different take on those relations.

 

"Search the pack and get the drugs," reads one anonymous entry. "Who cares if you have consent. No one is going to believe a Deadhead over a Ranger. Worthless scumbag deserves what he gets."

 

Drugs and alcohol figure into many arrests in the park, said Sholly, pointing out that there are as many as 20 establishments in Yosemite where alcohol is served or sold at various times of year.

 

He said rangers would be derelict if they were not on the lookout for drunk drivers, given the park's winding roads, distracting scenery and wandering wildlife.

 

Yet critics contend that rangers, at times, can pose the greatest threat. Don Squires, an Alameda County Superior Court judge, said he witnessed such an incident in the summer of 2000.

 

According to Squires and official reports, a group of British soldiers was drinking beer at a crowded outdoor cafe in Yosemite Valley. The young men were singing raucously, Squires said, but he and his wife, who were chaperoning several young children, saw nothing but bonhomie on a "lovely afternoon."

 

However, after a patron complained that one of the soldiers "mooned" someone in the crowd, Squires said rangers quickly intervened, hogtying and striking one of the soldiers as they dragged him off the deck.

 

"It was an excessive use of force and an outrageous abuse of authority," Squires said. "I was stone-cold sober just a few feet away with an uninterrupted view, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a terrible thing for kids to see."

 

The soldier pleaded guilty to being under the influence of alcohol, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

 

It's not always visitors who run afoul of Yosemite rangers.

 

Park workers complain they have been charged with public drunkenness simply for drinking a beer on the front steps of employee dormitories or as they walked from their rooms to nearby bathrooms. One young woman was stopped after leaving a party in July and charged with "internal possession' of alcohol," a reference to the contents of her stomach. The charge was

dismissed.

 

Stories like that abound in the valley, said Greg Johnson, vice president of the local Service Employees International Union, which represents concessions employees in the park.

 

Tollefson disagreed. "I don't think we have rangers hiding in the bushes waiting for concessions employees to do something wrong," the park superintendent said.

 

Yet some employees say fear of harassment causes them to live outside the park, entailing longer commutes and higher rents. "I moved away from my home of eight years because of it," said Bryan Kay, 33, who lived and worked in the valley and volunteered on the park's search and rescue team. "I packed my bags. I said, 'I'm moving to America.' Now I commute an hour and a half to my job."

[bigwalling]

Bryan Kay... hahahahahahaha

[treknclime]

BASE jumping...if caught..in Yosemite...will get ya fined $2,500...plus...the NPS takes all jump gear (like $2k plus)...and it's breaking a federal law. Doesn't seem fair. Does the punishment fit the crime?

[Distel32]

I got pulled over at 2am when I was with the lawgoddess because I was going 30 in a 25. cocksuckers

[bigwalling]

That bites distel, had you been drinking? I would have sworn the speed limit was 35 thoughout most the valley?

 

I know a guy that got arrested for climbing a tree there... hahaha

[Dru]

Being a cop in a dinky little outpost like the Ditch is nowhere as glamorous as say, being a vice cop in Vegas and measuring strippers' pasties for potential vice code infractions. So these guys are usually the bottom of the barrel failures that have reached their level of incompetence thru demotion. No wonder they over react. Short dick syndrome.

[Distel32]

no hadn't been drinking at all, and had driven all day from seattle. He followed me for like 300 yards and only put his lights on when I turned into camp 4.

 

whatever, they have nothing better to do like Dru said

[specialed]

Being a cop in a dinky little outpost like the Ditch is nowhere as glamorous as say, being a vice cop in Vegas and measuring strippers' pasties for potential vice code infractions. So these guys are usually the bottom of the barrel failures that have reached their level of incompetence thru demotion. No wonder they over react. Short dick syndrome.

 

Perfect description of the certain Forest Service law enforcement officer up here that we all know and love.

This is for you LT:

[catbirdseat]

no hadn't been drinking at all, and had driven all day from seattle. He followed me for like 300 yards and only put his lights on when I turned into camp 4.

There was your big mistake, you should have gone right on past and then come back. The guy probably though, "bingo, a climber!"

[Distel32]

he would have never stopped foloowing me, trust me, we were the only car moving in the entire valley

[RuMR]

he saw your bouldering pad...you were done before you pulled over...

 

Was TLG able to sweettalk him out of giving you a ticket????

[texplorer]

Climbers are singled out in the park. I try to be as squeeky clean as possible (aside from poaching a nights stay in C4) Next time I am down there I might "accidentally spill honey down the crack in a ranger-car." Let the bears do my dirty work. Mmwwhahahahahahaha

[Dru]

The Truth About Rangers:

[OnTop_of_Poo]

Climbers are singled out in the park. I try to be as squeeky clean as possible (aside from poaching a nights stay in C4) Next time I am down there I might "accidentally spill honey down the crack in a ranger-car." Let the bears do my dirty work. Mmwwhahahahahahaha

[RuMR]

Climbers are singled out in the park. I try to be as squeeky clean as possible (aside from poaching a nights stay in C4) Next time I am down there I might "accidentally spill honey down the crack in a ranger-car." Let the bears do my dirty work. Mmwwhahahahahahaha

[Dru]

[OnTop_of_Poo]

[chelle]

The rangers in the parks are idiots. Nice article OTOP.

[OnTop_of_Poo]

The LA Times wrote this piece, and I'm not sure they were making any definitive statement about rangers, other than "Hey, this is going on." I wonder if there will be a follow up, or more revealing article in time? Anyway, the story seemed relevant here, especially considering Leavenworth Larry.

 

The photos were found through a google search. Someone was proud enough to place them on the web. I like the three little bears the best.

[chelle]

What the article talks about goes on there all the time. Those rangers are tools and the hassle that they give climbers has made it a lot less fun to climb there. It's a background tension that makes a climbing trip into a cat & mouse game that is not that much fun to play anymore. Thankfully I have a friend who lives just 1.5 hours from the valley and loves to have climbers crash at his place.

 

I'm glad the LA Times wrote this piece. It is good to see this crap get aired in public. Maybe they'll face more pressure to act like humans and treat park visitors, employees, and climbers better. But I doubt it.

[snugtop]

Smokey NODDER

[Stefan]

I got pulled over at 2am when I was with the lawgoddess because I was going 30 in a 25. cocksuckers

 

You should never ever ever ever go higher than the posted speed limit. It is against the law.

[DirtyHarry]

Those stories in the article are pretty outrageous. However, a lot of times I think climbers in the valley arrogantly think they are above the law - that they have some natural right to do whatever they want and not adhere to park regulations or law.

Anytime you have that many people in one place (especialy if its in a natural setting like the ditch)there's going to be rules and regulations in place to conserve the area. Doesn't excuse asshole Tools who abuse their power though.

[bigwalling]

Fuck the Tool