Dr Nitro
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http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/feb06/390715.asp?format=print--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: Feb. 7, 2006
Town of Trenton - A Town of Trenton couple have filed complaints with the state Department of Natural Resources and the Washington County Sheriff's Department alleging that an overzealous conservation warden entered their home Jan. 20 and startled the partially clad mother as she was breast-feeding her 3-month-old son in their living room.
Terrie Stangl says DNR Warden Rick Wolff entered the home through a side door around 8:30 p.m. and announced that he was looking for whoever was driving a snowmobile down the middle of Washington Drive in front of the Stangls' 1868 farmstead.
"I stood up and there he was standing in the entryway, just a couple feet from where I was breast-feeding. There was no doorbell or knock," Terrie Stangl said. "It was like the gestapo. He just came in and took over."
Wolff, a 28-year veteran with the DNR, declined to comment, saying, "We're still doing reports. I'm not at liberty to say anything at this point in time."
Wolff's supervisor, Ron Preder, said he twice talked to Terrie Stangl and to Wolff after the incident.
At first, Preder said he thought the incident was a "perception issue" and directed Wolff to telephone the Stangls to patch things up, which Wolff did.
Terrie Stangl said Wolff apologized over the phone and thought that was the end of it, too, until the Stangls received in the mail not a written apology, as they had requested, but a citation for $186 and a note from Wolff that read, "If any questions, call me, Rick."
Preder on Monday said Wolff told him that Wolff had knocked on the door, that a daughter opened the door and that he entered the house only after the girl went to fetch her mother.
On Tuesday, after he had visited the Stangl house, Preder said that Terrie Stangl's complaint "may have some merit."
"I need to do some work more work on this, specifically talking to my employee," Preder said.
Preder said he is still investigating the incident and will forward his findings to his superiors, who will determine what, if any, discipline is required.
Husband had used snowmobile
The man Wolff was looking for was, indeed, Frank Stangl, the Stangls later admitted to Wolff. Frank Stangl had taken three of the couple's five children snowmobiling just minutes before Wolff entered the home, and headed up Washington Drive to his brother's nearby house, where there is a snowmobile trail.
Terrie stayed home with the couple's 9-year-old daughter and her nursing son when Wolff, she alleges, opened the side door, hitting the 9-year-old in the forehead, and announced his presence.
Stangl tried to cover herself with her son while she attempted to pull her cardigan sweater over herself, she said.
" 'Why don't you step outside and wait for my husband?' " she said she told Wolff.
She also said Wolff told her, "I was in your barn" and had noticed that the family's snowmobiles were gone.
"We're law-abiding people," she said. "We don't deserve to be treated like we have a meth lab in our barn. It's surreal."
The next day, the Stangls complained to the Sheriff's Department and to the DNR.
Washington County Sheriff's Capt. Dale Schmidt said a deputy interviewed Terrie Stangl the day after the incident and that a report is on file.
"Right now, it's not something we would do anything with," Schmidt said. Complaints against police officers are usually handled by the agency for which the officer works, in this case the DNR, he said.
Frank Stangl has been cited for illegal snowmobile operation on a highway, which carries a fine of $186. Terrie Stangl said her husband will not contest the citation.
"We want a sincere written apology. Not a sticky note saying 'Call me if you have questions,' " Terrie Stangl said.
"We have no problem paying the citation. This is about protocol, and I think he should be held accountable."
Law enforcement officers, such as DNR wardens, are allowed to enter buildings uninvited and without search warrants in only a few circumstances, such as when a crime is in the process of being committed or lives are at risk, Preder said.
In this case, "there was certainly a reason to make contact at the house," but not to enter the house without permission, Preder said.
"If we find that the warden entered the house without knocking, that would be inappropriate," Preder said, adding that such an action would be "out of character" for Wolff.