The article is recent, but talks about a 5-year-old outrage. I post it here just for archival purposes and an example, as if we needed more, for those fence-sitters who still trust the US government's agencies.
http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200007107.shtml
Wildlife SWAT Unit Runs Over Law
By Kelly Patricia O’Meara
omeara@insightmag.com
A North Carolina exotic-meat business was forced to close by overzealous federal and state officials, who don’t seem to understand what the law is regarding exotic game.
On Nov. 15, 1995, agents from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, or NCWRC, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arrived at Earl Peck’s home-based business in Rocky Mount, N.C., to discuss whether he might be in violation of state wildlife laws by selling game from other jurisdictions where its commerce is legal. Peck invited the agents in, explained that through his exotic-meat business, International Home Cooking, he did indeed sell some black-bear meat purchased from a legal out-of-state distributor. So was the matter resolved amicably?
Alas, not really. In a perfect world of courtesy and civility, where innocence is presumed until guilt is proved, the problem might have been played out as imagined above. But Peck was not afforded the benefit of the doubt and the events that unfolded that fall day have put him out of business and left him near bankruptcy. Indeed the investigation and raid resembled something out of television’s popular Cops series, where SWAT teams and siege tactics are the norm. Here is what actually happened to this respected citizen and businessman.
In June 1995, North Carolina Wildlife Officer Charles Shaver, posing as a customer, purchased 40 pounds of black-bear meat from Peck. Through DNA testing at a federal laboratory it was confirmed that the meat Peck sold Shaver was black bear. According to Peck, during the “buy” Shaver asked if it “is legal to purchase bear” and Peck responded in the affirmative, explaining: “I get it from my [out-of-state] distributors.”
When Peck returned home, he thought again about Shaver’s question and immediately contacted one of his California distributors to confirm the legality of the sale. The distributor reassured Peck that not only was the sale legal, but the meat was government-inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA.
Nearly six months elapsed before Shaver contacted Peck in November 1995 to arrange a second purchase. Because Peck ran the business from his home, he would take his meat to buyers rather than have them clog the neighborhood with trucks and other traffic. On this occasion he agreed to meet Shaver in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. Unaware of any crime he might be committing, Peck loaded the bear meat into Shaver’s automobile and, just as the undercover officer was preparing to pay Peck, a half-dozen armed law officers sped to the scene. Believing he was being robbed, Peck was pushed against the car and frisked while the entire episode was videotaped.
Peck does not believe he was read his rights, but he does recall that he was handed a search warrant by one of the officers who then instructed him to drive two of the inspectors — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Theodore Curtis and Maj. N. Tyson Laney, chief of law enforcement for NCWRC — to his home-based business. Eight officers spent hours downloading information from Peck’s computer and searching his home, including his bedroom, for evidence about the sale of exotic meats. When the search was concluded, state and federal officials walked away with Peck’s business records and nearly $2,000 in various meat products, including the suspect bear meat. Before leaving the bewildered Peck, Curtis warned him that he was facing a $20,000 fine and five years in prison on each count of violating the law.
Despite the dramatic methods used by state and federal wildlife officers to “catch” Peck in perceived criminal activity, no charges were filed against him. Now, nearly five years later, the same state and federal authorities that participated in the raid on his business are stunned that Peck blames them for the loss of his livelihood. And, even more bizarre, the state officials who participated in the raid have a kind of amnesia about which authority, state or federal, initiated the raid.
“I’m not aware,” says Col. Roger LeQuire, director of enforcement for the NCWRC, “of any state charges that were ever brought against Mr. Peck.” LeQuire tells Insight that “the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service charged Peck with something at one point, but we had minimal input on the initial raid. We didn’t seize anything from Mr. Peck. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was working this case and we stepped out and let them handle it because they have much greater resources. I have no idea who brought them into the case, and I don’t know what their involvement was — what they seized or anything.” Trying to explain who initiated the raid, LeQuire surmised that it “could be another scenario where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brought in one of our guys.”
According to Mike Elkins, regional director of law enforcement for the South East Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “North Carolina agents came to us for assistance because they had become aware of a company that was selling black-bear meat. We got a search warrant, reviewed the evidence and the U.S. attorney declined to prosecute.” In fact, Elkins quoted from a document in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s file on Peck that it was North Carolina Special Agent Shaver who initiated the request for federal assistance — a fact that LeQuire, as chief law-enforcement officer for the NCWRC, should know.
While the confusion even about which agency initiated the raid on Peck tells a great deal about the embarrassment caused by the case, the state laws that Peck reportedly violated are even more confusing.
For instance, it is state law that black bear may not be sold in North Carolina, regardless of whether the bear is killed in the state or imported from other states that allow its sale. Likewise, according to an Aug. 7, 1996, letter from the NCWRC’s Laney, it is unlawful to sell “any member of the deer family (Cervidae), whether or not the species is native to North Carolina.” However, according to a letter dated Oct. 22, 1996, from LeQuire, selling red-deer meat from New Zealand is legal.
The Embassy of New Zealand had been surprised to learn that North Carolina prohibited the sale of its deer, according to Laney’s letter, and contacted state officials. LeQuire then backtracked and explained that the statute “prohibits the sale of edible portions” of “game animals” — thus deer. But, the latter continued, “The question becomes are New Zealand red deer game animals under North Carolina law and prohibited for sale? The answer is ‘no.’ ”
Never mind that the New Zealand red-deer meat Peck had in stock was confiscated by NCWRC officers — apparently illegally.
To make matters worse, Laney in his letter further stated that the sale of quail, pheasant and duck also is illegal in North Carolina. This of course will be a huge surprise to the local supermarkets that sell these meats from their freezer chests. Clearly the NCWRC appears to be confused about what meats may or may not be sold in the state, which makes Peck’s case all the more bewildering.
According to North Carolina state Rep. Gene Arnold, a Republican who has taken on Peck’s case, “What has happened to Peck is a sad commentary on the state of government. There is no question that Earl Peck was mistreated by the government. They destroyed his business and his life. This simply is a case of government run amok.”
Peck agrees. “In reading the law, I still believe I did not break the law because the NCWRC exists to protect native species of North Carolina. In no way does product produced outside North Carolina for the purpose of consumption — which is USDA-inspected and labeled, and with a trail of receipts — affect the native wildlife of North Carolina.” Besides, Peck’s was just one of many exotic-meat businesses specializing in the sale of alligator, bear, buffalo, caribou, cobra, wild boar, wild turkey, ostrich and kangaroo.
Peck continues: “If someone in government had informed me that any of my products were illegal, I would have stopped selling them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the opportunity to respond. I was only allowed to react to the Gestapo tactics these agencies used on me. My business was forced into an unoperational mode because of these tactics and it remains unoperational because of the government’s lack of knowledge, additional requirements placed on my business which were not placed on my competitors — and the resulting damages caused by these agencies.”
The state and federal law-enforcement officials who raided him as if he were Al Capone trafficking in poisoned hooch take no responsibility for destroying Peck’s livelihood. “Unless his business was totally dependent on black bear,” says Elkins, “I don’t see any reason why he says his business is shut down.” LeQuire expresses similar sentiments: “I understand these are questions you have to ask, but we worked hard with this guy trying to help him get his business back on line. I don’t know legally that we can do anything more — at least not in my department.”
According to Peck, “The damages were the loss of our distributorships, damaged credit with our suppliers, losing our discounts from Federal Express when we had to stop shipping, foreclosing us from fair competition with our competitors and keeping in question the legality of our product lines. We never formally closed our business, but the problems with the NCWRC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made it impossible to operate. When I look back on all that has happened over the last five years, I have to ask, ‘Are the little people still a part of government or is government taking us apart?’ ”
Copyright © 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited June 10, 2000).]
http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200007107.shtml
Wildlife SWAT Unit Runs Over Law
By Kelly Patricia O’Meara
omeara@insightmag.com
A North Carolina exotic-meat business was forced to close by overzealous federal and state officials, who don’t seem to understand what the law is regarding exotic game.
On Nov. 15, 1995, agents from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, or NCWRC, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arrived at Earl Peck’s home-based business in Rocky Mount, N.C., to discuss whether he might be in violation of state wildlife laws by selling game from other jurisdictions where its commerce is legal. Peck invited the agents in, explained that through his exotic-meat business, International Home Cooking, he did indeed sell some black-bear meat purchased from a legal out-of-state distributor. So was the matter resolved amicably?
Alas, not really. In a perfect world of courtesy and civility, where innocence is presumed until guilt is proved, the problem might have been played out as imagined above. But Peck was not afforded the benefit of the doubt and the events that unfolded that fall day have put him out of business and left him near bankruptcy. Indeed the investigation and raid resembled something out of television’s popular Cops series, where SWAT teams and siege tactics are the norm. Here is what actually happened to this respected citizen and businessman.
In June 1995, North Carolina Wildlife Officer Charles Shaver, posing as a customer, purchased 40 pounds of black-bear meat from Peck. Through DNA testing at a federal laboratory it was confirmed that the meat Peck sold Shaver was black bear. According to Peck, during the “buy” Shaver asked if it “is legal to purchase bear” and Peck responded in the affirmative, explaining: “I get it from my [out-of-state] distributors.”
When Peck returned home, he thought again about Shaver’s question and immediately contacted one of his California distributors to confirm the legality of the sale. The distributor reassured Peck that not only was the sale legal, but the meat was government-inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA.
Nearly six months elapsed before Shaver contacted Peck in November 1995 to arrange a second purchase. Because Peck ran the business from his home, he would take his meat to buyers rather than have them clog the neighborhood with trucks and other traffic. On this occasion he agreed to meet Shaver in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. Unaware of any crime he might be committing, Peck loaded the bear meat into Shaver’s automobile and, just as the undercover officer was preparing to pay Peck, a half-dozen armed law officers sped to the scene. Believing he was being robbed, Peck was pushed against the car and frisked while the entire episode was videotaped.
Peck does not believe he was read his rights, but he does recall that he was handed a search warrant by one of the officers who then instructed him to drive two of the inspectors — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Theodore Curtis and Maj. N. Tyson Laney, chief of law enforcement for NCWRC — to his home-based business. Eight officers spent hours downloading information from Peck’s computer and searching his home, including his bedroom, for evidence about the sale of exotic meats. When the search was concluded, state and federal officials walked away with Peck’s business records and nearly $2,000 in various meat products, including the suspect bear meat. Before leaving the bewildered Peck, Curtis warned him that he was facing a $20,000 fine and five years in prison on each count of violating the law.
Despite the dramatic methods used by state and federal wildlife officers to “catch” Peck in perceived criminal activity, no charges were filed against him. Now, nearly five years later, the same state and federal authorities that participated in the raid on his business are stunned that Peck blames them for the loss of his livelihood. And, even more bizarre, the state officials who participated in the raid have a kind of amnesia about which authority, state or federal, initiated the raid.
“I’m not aware,” says Col. Roger LeQuire, director of enforcement for the NCWRC, “of any state charges that were ever brought against Mr. Peck.” LeQuire tells Insight that “the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service charged Peck with something at one point, but we had minimal input on the initial raid. We didn’t seize anything from Mr. Peck. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was working this case and we stepped out and let them handle it because they have much greater resources. I have no idea who brought them into the case, and I don’t know what their involvement was — what they seized or anything.” Trying to explain who initiated the raid, LeQuire surmised that it “could be another scenario where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brought in one of our guys.”
According to Mike Elkins, regional director of law enforcement for the South East Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “North Carolina agents came to us for assistance because they had become aware of a company that was selling black-bear meat. We got a search warrant, reviewed the evidence and the U.S. attorney declined to prosecute.” In fact, Elkins quoted from a document in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s file on Peck that it was North Carolina Special Agent Shaver who initiated the request for federal assistance — a fact that LeQuire, as chief law-enforcement officer for the NCWRC, should know.
While the confusion even about which agency initiated the raid on Peck tells a great deal about the embarrassment caused by the case, the state laws that Peck reportedly violated are even more confusing.
For instance, it is state law that black bear may not be sold in North Carolina, regardless of whether the bear is killed in the state or imported from other states that allow its sale. Likewise, according to an Aug. 7, 1996, letter from the NCWRC’s Laney, it is unlawful to sell “any member of the deer family (Cervidae), whether or not the species is native to North Carolina.” However, according to a letter dated Oct. 22, 1996, from LeQuire, selling red-deer meat from New Zealand is legal.
The Embassy of New Zealand had been surprised to learn that North Carolina prohibited the sale of its deer, according to Laney’s letter, and contacted state officials. LeQuire then backtracked and explained that the statute “prohibits the sale of edible portions” of “game animals” — thus deer. But, the latter continued, “The question becomes are New Zealand red deer game animals under North Carolina law and prohibited for sale? The answer is ‘no.’ ”
Never mind that the New Zealand red-deer meat Peck had in stock was confiscated by NCWRC officers — apparently illegally.
To make matters worse, Laney in his letter further stated that the sale of quail, pheasant and duck also is illegal in North Carolina. This of course will be a huge surprise to the local supermarkets that sell these meats from their freezer chests. Clearly the NCWRC appears to be confused about what meats may or may not be sold in the state, which makes Peck’s case all the more bewildering.
According to North Carolina state Rep. Gene Arnold, a Republican who has taken on Peck’s case, “What has happened to Peck is a sad commentary on the state of government. There is no question that Earl Peck was mistreated by the government. They destroyed his business and his life. This simply is a case of government run amok.”
Peck agrees. “In reading the law, I still believe I did not break the law because the NCWRC exists to protect native species of North Carolina. In no way does product produced outside North Carolina for the purpose of consumption — which is USDA-inspected and labeled, and with a trail of receipts — affect the native wildlife of North Carolina.” Besides, Peck’s was just one of many exotic-meat businesses specializing in the sale of alligator, bear, buffalo, caribou, cobra, wild boar, wild turkey, ostrich and kangaroo.
Peck continues: “If someone in government had informed me that any of my products were illegal, I would have stopped selling them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the opportunity to respond. I was only allowed to react to the Gestapo tactics these agencies used on me. My business was forced into an unoperational mode because of these tactics and it remains unoperational because of the government’s lack of knowledge, additional requirements placed on my business which were not placed on my competitors — and the resulting damages caused by these agencies.”
The state and federal law-enforcement officials who raided him as if he were Al Capone trafficking in poisoned hooch take no responsibility for destroying Peck’s livelihood. “Unless his business was totally dependent on black bear,” says Elkins, “I don’t see any reason why he says his business is shut down.” LeQuire expresses similar sentiments: “I understand these are questions you have to ask, but we worked hard with this guy trying to help him get his business back on line. I don’t know legally that we can do anything more — at least not in my department.”
According to Peck, “The damages were the loss of our distributorships, damaged credit with our suppliers, losing our discounts from Federal Express when we had to stop shipping, foreclosing us from fair competition with our competitors and keeping in question the legality of our product lines. We never formally closed our business, but the problems with the NCWRC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made it impossible to operate. When I look back on all that has happened over the last five years, I have to ask, ‘Are the little people still a part of government or is government taking us apart?’ ”
Copyright © 2000 News World Communications, Inc.
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited June 10, 2000).]