Save A Fawn - Get Jail Time

[Palehorse]

http://www.wthr.com/story/20711538/connersville-police-officer-and-his-wife-face-charges-for-saving-a-deer

This is an example of the Indiana DNR absolutely abusing their power and wasting money.

A Connersville couple are being charged and brought to trial for rescuing a fawn. . . WTF? 

And with all the press this is getting, do they think they have an ice cube's chance in hell of getting a jury to convict this couple???? 

[me]

Good grief why don't they just forget it and go on.  What a crock.  I too would be surprised if a jury would convict them of any wrong doing. 

[The Troll]

Good grief why don't they just forget it and go on.  What a crock.  I too would be surprised if a jury would convict them of any wrong doing.

  Yep, I'd love to be on that jury.     We have so many police "officers?" and dick prosecutors who are just dumb assholes.   

[Palehorse]

Yeah. This is the very same DNR that holds special hunts in the area this couple resides within, to cull down the burgeoning deer population. So What is the issue with this couple nursing an injured fawn back to health, and spending their own time and money to do so?

The DNR seriously needs to get a grip on reality. This smacks of blatant stupidity, overzealousness, and makes one suspicious of something more being the driver for all of this. Something like, perhaps, revenge? Like maybe the police officer (the male being charged in all of this) wrote a ticket for a traffic infraction on one of the decision makers in this case, and now it is payback time? 

[Palehorse]

And it isn't as if the Indiana DNR is the only state with overzealous and ignorant employees. I'll relate a personal experience with the Illinois DNR here:

Back when I lived there and was much younger, a friend and I had heard of the large salmon that could be legally snagged within Lake Michigan's harbors along the Chicago lakefront. Both of us being keen on salmon and fishing decided to give it a try. Our mistake was to not fully read the policies and regulations surrounding this method of obtaining our quarry. . .

We visited Jackson harbor one early Sunday morning and found it densely populated with snagging fishermen, so we parked and found an empty spot to begin our first attempt at it. We had been there about an hour and a half and had not caught anything, but had watched several others reel in some very fine specimens, which kept us hopeful.

All of a sudden we hear yelling, and saw the other fishermen running, jumping fences, etc., and since we knew Chicago was infested with gang activity, we automatically assumed this was some gang thing going on and decided to leave as quickly as possible. . .

As we were walking along the path toward our parked vehicle, 4 men were walking our way. They were dressed like we were, and one of them had a stiletto in his hand and was flicking the blade in and out as the group approached us. My friend and I had 7 foot heavy action rods in our hands, with lead encased treble hooks affixed to them, so we agreed that if these guys engaged us these were our way out.

As we met the stiletto boy began yelling at us for snagging within the harbor. They blocked our path and stiletto boy demanded to see our fishing license and stamps, which we handed over and since he began walking back toward the lot we began walking with him. (Mind you everyone else had jumped the fences and run across Lake Shore Drive traffic to escape these miscreants). It wasn't until we saw the DNR vehicle that we understood who these guys were.

They proceeded to write us both a fist full of tickets for "snagging in a no snagging zone, snagging within 20 feet of a moored watercraft", (the harbor was empty), and a host of other infractions. Each one carrying a fine of 250 dollars each, and requiring a court appearance.  They couldn't confiscate our equipment and vehicle because we had no fish, but they threatened to anyway. Eventually they let us go on our way, and that we did; chagrined.

Court date came and my friend and I arrived to a packed court room. Seems there were a lot of other guys that had been ticketed and summoned to court by these DNR officers. And at the appointed time the DNR Officers arrived in court, resplendent in their uniforms and hats, a far cry from the way they appeared when we had encountered them on a Sunday morning 6 weeks earlier.

The judge began calling up defendants and allowing them to enter their plea and ask the DNR officers any questions that they felt would bring clarity to the situation for the judge. My friend and I observed and listened with fear, as we saw defendants get reamed out and have their confiscated possessions ordered auctioned off as the result of poaching, and snagging in no snagging zones. . . And then my name was called.

I began my questioning of stiletto boy by asking him how he was dressed that Sunday morning. The judge stopped me and asked me what was the point of this question. I informed him of how my friend and I had encountered these officers, and how they were dressed, and how we had no idea who these guys were until we saw the vehicle and the judge asked them if this was true. Stiletto boy replied that it was a Sunday morning and the judge stopped him.

Did you identify yourselves as DNR Officers? Did you show them identification? . . . No. . .

The judge then asked me who my friend was and if he was with me, which he was. He called him up. Then the judge began berating the officers involved for their abuse of authority, etc., and dismissed all charges against my friend and I on the spot. 

Needless to say we both read up on the regulations and made sure we strictly adhered to them after that. But what could have been a VERY expensive lesson for both of us turned out alright, and all because those idiots had decided to act like thugs, and dress the part, instead of adhering to their own policies and conducting themselves in a professional manner.

And over the ensuing years I encountered hundreds of DNR Officers on the lakefront; and each one of them was dressed in uniform from then on! 

[Palehorse]

Holy hell. Even the rag media has now glommed onto this story! 

http://www.examiner.com/article/animal-heroes-face-jail-time-for-saving-an-innocent-fawn-from-death?cid=db_articles

Connersville, they name is shite!