Commentary
Beware vindictive government officials
by Bob Collins
On April 17, the Hendersonville Times-News ran an understated story entitled "Raid Upsets Company Owner," which only hinted at the truth. Being part of the mainstream media, the newspaper failed to get to the real reason behind the event. The article was correct in implying that the raid on this family-owned business, American Carolina Stamping -- located in the quiet hills of Penrose -- was originally instigated by a disgruntled ex-employee. But what it failed to note was that the armed invasion was really the result of government retaliation.
PRELUDE TO THE RAID: Angry ex-employee Arthur Poteet, 33, set the events in motion that led to the invasion by filing a complaint under the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) with the North Carolina Department of Labor. Poteet stated he was fired because he threatened to call the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) about alleged safety and health problems at the factory. General Manager Steve McNabb, whose family owns the facility, remembers Poteet's departure differently. "Poteet was fired because he had an alcohol problem," he maintains.
In an April 5 letter, the state Department of Labor dismissed Poteet's complaint, saying it had no merit.
But, it seems, the vendetta continued, with anonymous callers complaining to other government agencies.
To find out what happens after that, we're forced to rely for the most part on McNabb, because, in the best tradition of government, no one is willing to comment on more than the bare essentials. When contacted, Sue Ellen Pierce, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney General's office, would only confirm that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Unit raided American Carolina Stamping this past April 15.
Prior to the raid, a surprise visit to the facility was made last Dec. 28 by Agent Spring Allen, of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). McNabb recalls asking Allen why she was there, and getting the following reply: "I'm here to make an inspection."
Unsatisfied, McNabb asked Allen to sit down and explain exactly what she wanted. McNabb says she snapped back at him, "I don't have time for this."
Tensions mounting, McNabb then remembers saying, "I have a goddamn problem with this" -- to which Allen reportedly volleyed back words to the effect, "I don't have to take that kind of language. I don't have to put up with this."
At this point, McNabb recalls telling her, "According to my First Amendment rights, I can speak any way I want to on my own property," after which he proceeded to demand that she leave -- which she promptly did.
McNabb said he then called Agent Allen's supervisor, Keith Masters, and told him exactly what had transpired. According to McNabb, Masters told him he understood and suspected the whole thing came about after a disgruntled employee had made an anonymous phone call to his department. McNabb remembers Masters calling back a week later to ask if American Carolina Stamping did any metal plating. McNabb told him no. According to McNabb, Masters then remarked that he would be retiring soon, and that if McNabb didn't hear from him, that meant there wasn't a problem.
McNabb thought this was the end of the matter -- but it seems that Agent Allen thought otherwise.
THE ARMED INVASION: The state agency had planned to follow up with a letter to McNabb, asking for his cooperation in resolving the complaints. But the letter, dated Feb. 2, was never sent. A copy of it, obtained by McNabb, has on it the handwritten words "Not sent" and a line struck through the body of the text. At the bottom is another handwritten comment indicating the state's new, more aggressive plan: "Agent Spring will contact EPA-CID [Criminal Investigations Division]."
On the morning of April 15, special agents from the criminal investigation unit of the EPA, led by Special Agent Tyler C. Ammons, invaded American Carolina Stamping. Thirty-five armed men, wearing flak jackets and helmets (yes, the EPA now has weapons), surrounded the facility, then entered, and held all the facility's employees captive. The agents were backed up by officers from the U.S. Marshal's Office, the state Bureau of Investigation and the Transylvania County Sheriff's Department, according to Transylvania County Sheriff's Detective Brian Kregsman. The invasion lasted the entire day.
That morning, when Steve and Janet McNabb arrived, Steve McNabb says he was searched, his three-inch pocket knife was taken, and he was then escorted, under guard, to his office. From there, he called Rep. Charles Taylor's office and the local media. He says when he reached in his cabinet to get a tape recorder, the guards became alarmed, and he thought they were going to shoot him. They told him he could not record or videotape the proceedings of the raid. At that point, McNabb says he became vocal and was handcuffed and taken out of the building and made to stand in the rain, guarded by three armed men.
While McNabb was handcuffed, both the media and Richard Faulkner, an aid to Rep. Taylor, arrived -- but the armed officials stopped them from going onto the property. And before either Faulkner or the media representatives could see him handcuffed, says McNabb, his guards removed his cuffs. While this was going on, men outfitted in hazardous-material-handling suits wandered in and out of the building, giving the appearance that one's life would be in danger if one entered the area.
McNabb's son, Jay, 35, lives in a house on the property, next to the factory. Three agents, with guns drawn, entered the house and confiscated two .22 caliber target guns, which were later returned. Steve McNabb maintains that the warrant did not include the son's residence. He says when he questioned the agents about the extent of the warrant, five of them swore that Jay had given them permission to enter -- which the younger McNabb flatly denies. Steve McNabb says, "Knowing my son, it could have turned violent if his children were home. Jay would have tried to stop them from going in there with those guns drawn."
The EPA proceeded to set up a tent and tape off a large area, and, still in their protective suits, they took samples from a 3-by-2-foot area of stained soil. McNabb maintains that the stain was the result of 10 years of doing business. (I, personally, have seen bigger ground stains outside most auto garages.)
After more then eight hours of armed occupation, the agents and technicians packed up their small army and left, as though nothing had ever happened.
The whole episode appears to be little more than government retaliation. Why else would the EPA go the drama of wearing flak jackets and moon suits to protect themselves from supposed dangerous chemicals -- while detaining, on the premises, employees wearing ordinary street clothes!
Outside all the while stood Agent Spring Allen, the very person at whom Steve McNabb had cursed. According to Shelby Bracken, an American Carolina Stamping employee, "While we were being held captive and threatened with going to jail, Agent Spring Allen was outside laughing and joking with the men in space suits."
In this light, the show of force appears as little more than an excuse to hold the news media and the congressmen's aid at bay, to cover up the abuses taking place inside.
THE AFTERMATH: A story in the Transylvania Times stated that Poteet now admits that he was the caller who instituted the EPA invasion, but he refused to comment further, saying that he had been told by some of the agencies involved not to discuss the matter.
Steve McNabb has spent numerous hours trying to ensure that justice is served. The warrant -- which, mysteriously, took months to obtain -- is unclear. And he's keenly aware that he has no guarantee against future government retaliation. All of this because he exercised his right of free speech on his own property.
While recounting the incident, he brought up Waco and Ruby Ridge, referring to them as tragedies precipitated by government retaliation. Such retaliations, he said, can start as simply as with one disgruntled employee, and escalate when a citizen's indignation runs head-on into arrogant government employees.
McNabb said he feels lucky that his family came through this safely.
Update: The Transylvania Times reported in June that workers for American Carolina Stamping claim that a federal agent, conducting an ongoing environmental investigation of their workplace, has threatened them with deportation. Carmen Medel Lopez, one of the workers questioned, said an EPA agent, whom she identified as Criminal Division Special Agent Tyler Ammons, told her that her Social Security number wasn't legal. A translator relayed Lopez's comments to a Transyslvania Times reporter: "[Ammons] said that if she doesn't tell the truth about Steve [McNabb], they were going to send her back to Mexico."
According to investigating agents, the case is under federal seal, and therefore they can give no information about it at this time. Bob Collins is a freelance writer living in Hendersonville.
Beware vindictive government officials
by Bob Collins
On April 17, the Hendersonville Times-News ran an understated story entitled "Raid Upsets Company Owner," which only hinted at the truth. Being part of the mainstream media, the newspaper failed to get to the real reason behind the event. The article was correct in implying that the raid on this family-owned business, American Carolina Stamping -- located in the quiet hills of Penrose -- was originally instigated by a disgruntled ex-employee. But what it failed to note was that the armed invasion was really the result of government retaliation.
PRELUDE TO THE RAID: Angry ex-employee Arthur Poteet, 33, set the events in motion that led to the invasion by filing a complaint under the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) with the North Carolina Department of Labor. Poteet stated he was fired because he threatened to call the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) about alleged safety and health problems at the factory. General Manager Steve McNabb, whose family owns the facility, remembers Poteet's departure differently. "Poteet was fired because he had an alcohol problem," he maintains.
In an April 5 letter, the state Department of Labor dismissed Poteet's complaint, saying it had no merit.
But, it seems, the vendetta continued, with anonymous callers complaining to other government agencies.
To find out what happens after that, we're forced to rely for the most part on McNabb, because, in the best tradition of government, no one is willing to comment on more than the bare essentials. When contacted, Sue Ellen Pierce, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney General's office, would only confirm that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Unit raided American Carolina Stamping this past April 15.
Prior to the raid, a surprise visit to the facility was made last Dec. 28 by Agent Spring Allen, of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). McNabb recalls asking Allen why she was there, and getting the following reply: "I'm here to make an inspection."
Unsatisfied, McNabb asked Allen to sit down and explain exactly what she wanted. McNabb says she snapped back at him, "I don't have time for this."
Tensions mounting, McNabb then remembers saying, "I have a goddamn problem with this" -- to which Allen reportedly volleyed back words to the effect, "I don't have to take that kind of language. I don't have to put up with this."
At this point, McNabb recalls telling her, "According to my First Amendment rights, I can speak any way I want to on my own property," after which he proceeded to demand that she leave -- which she promptly did.
McNabb said he then called Agent Allen's supervisor, Keith Masters, and told him exactly what had transpired. According to McNabb, Masters told him he understood and suspected the whole thing came about after a disgruntled employee had made an anonymous phone call to his department. McNabb remembers Masters calling back a week later to ask if American Carolina Stamping did any metal plating. McNabb told him no. According to McNabb, Masters then remarked that he would be retiring soon, and that if McNabb didn't hear from him, that meant there wasn't a problem.
McNabb thought this was the end of the matter -- but it seems that Agent Allen thought otherwise.
THE ARMED INVASION: The state agency had planned to follow up with a letter to McNabb, asking for his cooperation in resolving the complaints. But the letter, dated Feb. 2, was never sent. A copy of it, obtained by McNabb, has on it the handwritten words "Not sent" and a line struck through the body of the text. At the bottom is another handwritten comment indicating the state's new, more aggressive plan: "Agent Spring will contact EPA-CID [Criminal Investigations Division]."
On the morning of April 15, special agents from the criminal investigation unit of the EPA, led by Special Agent Tyler C. Ammons, invaded American Carolina Stamping. Thirty-five armed men, wearing flak jackets and helmets (yes, the EPA now has weapons), surrounded the facility, then entered, and held all the facility's employees captive. The agents were backed up by officers from the U.S. Marshal's Office, the state Bureau of Investigation and the Transylvania County Sheriff's Department, according to Transylvania County Sheriff's Detective Brian Kregsman. The invasion lasted the entire day.
That morning, when Steve and Janet McNabb arrived, Steve McNabb says he was searched, his three-inch pocket knife was taken, and he was then escorted, under guard, to his office. From there, he called Rep. Charles Taylor's office and the local media. He says when he reached in his cabinet to get a tape recorder, the guards became alarmed, and he thought they were going to shoot him. They told him he could not record or videotape the proceedings of the raid. At that point, McNabb says he became vocal and was handcuffed and taken out of the building and made to stand in the rain, guarded by three armed men.
While McNabb was handcuffed, both the media and Richard Faulkner, an aid to Rep. Taylor, arrived -- but the armed officials stopped them from going onto the property. And before either Faulkner or the media representatives could see him handcuffed, says McNabb, his guards removed his cuffs. While this was going on, men outfitted in hazardous-material-handling suits wandered in and out of the building, giving the appearance that one's life would be in danger if one entered the area.
McNabb's son, Jay, 35, lives in a house on the property, next to the factory. Three agents, with guns drawn, entered the house and confiscated two .22 caliber target guns, which were later returned. Steve McNabb maintains that the warrant did not include the son's residence. He says when he questioned the agents about the extent of the warrant, five of them swore that Jay had given them permission to enter -- which the younger McNabb flatly denies. Steve McNabb says, "Knowing my son, it could have turned violent if his children were home. Jay would have tried to stop them from going in there with those guns drawn."
The EPA proceeded to set up a tent and tape off a large area, and, still in their protective suits, they took samples from a 3-by-2-foot area of stained soil. McNabb maintains that the stain was the result of 10 years of doing business. (I, personally, have seen bigger ground stains outside most auto garages.)
After more then eight hours of armed occupation, the agents and technicians packed up their small army and left, as though nothing had ever happened.
The whole episode appears to be little more than government retaliation. Why else would the EPA go the drama of wearing flak jackets and moon suits to protect themselves from supposed dangerous chemicals -- while detaining, on the premises, employees wearing ordinary street clothes!
Outside all the while stood Agent Spring Allen, the very person at whom Steve McNabb had cursed. According to Shelby Bracken, an American Carolina Stamping employee, "While we were being held captive and threatened with going to jail, Agent Spring Allen was outside laughing and joking with the men in space suits."
In this light, the show of force appears as little more than an excuse to hold the news media and the congressmen's aid at bay, to cover up the abuses taking place inside.
THE AFTERMATH: A story in the Transylvania Times stated that Poteet now admits that he was the caller who instituted the EPA invasion, but he refused to comment further, saying that he had been told by some of the agencies involved not to discuss the matter.
Steve McNabb has spent numerous hours trying to ensure that justice is served. The warrant -- which, mysteriously, took months to obtain -- is unclear. And he's keenly aware that he has no guarantee against future government retaliation. All of this because he exercised his right of free speech on his own property.
While recounting the incident, he brought up Waco and Ruby Ridge, referring to them as tragedies precipitated by government retaliation. Such retaliations, he said, can start as simply as with one disgruntled employee, and escalate when a citizen's indignation runs head-on into arrogant government employees.
McNabb said he feels lucky that his family came through this safely.
Update: The Transylvania Times reported in June that workers for American Carolina Stamping claim that a federal agent, conducting an ongoing environmental investigation of their workplace, has threatened them with deportation. Carmen Medel Lopez, one of the workers questioned, said an EPA agent, whom she identified as Criminal Division Special Agent Tyler Ammons, told her that her Social Security number wasn't legal. A translator relayed Lopez's comments to a Transyslvania Times reporter: "[Ammons] said that if she doesn't tell the truth about Steve [McNabb], they were going to send her back to Mexico."
According to investigating agents, the case is under federal seal, and therefore they can give no information about it at this time. Bob Collins is a freelance writer living in Hendersonville.