Posted on 11/23/2001 1:50:10 AM PST by 2Trievers
The owner of a Manchester firing range is suing the Fish and Game Department’s top law enforcement official alleging he defamed him by calling him a "criminal." James L. McLoud, owner of the Manchester Firing Line Range (formerly Wolfs Range), alleges Col. Ronald P. Alie embarrassed him in front of legislators, gun enthusiasts and people in the law enforcement community with whom he has business dealings. The incident allegedly occurred after a State House hearing in March on a firearms bill McLoud supported. The firing range owner said he has never been convicted of a crime, but he was wrongly arrested by Fish and Game several years ago and the case was thrown out of court. “This irritated Fish and Game so badly they will do anything to slander me,” McLoud said. “They did not tell the truth, including in the court case . . . I think that’s why the judge threw it out.” The lawsuit filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court alleges Alie described McLoud as “nothing but a criminal on the loose” and accused him of illegal night hunting. “Our position very clearly is that when you accuse someone of being a criminal who is in a regulated business involving firearms, it is highly defamatory,” said McLoud’s lawyer, Charles G. Douglas III. Alie denied the accusations through his attorney. “The allegations regarding the defendant are denied,” said Richard Head of the Environmental Protection Bureau in the Attorney General’s Office, who pointed out that the case was in the initial stages. “We are in the process of investigating what the claim is, as well as the events of 1996 that gave rise to Mr. McLoud’s arrest,” Head said. “All of those issues are going to be raised in defense of the claims brought by Mr. McLoud.” According to the lawsuit, McLoud’s clash with Fish and Game began Nov. 14, 1996, when he dropped off firearms at a relative’s home in Meredith. McLoud and his uncle drove to Meredith Neck to observe deer with night-vision goggles. Neither had any firearms of any type with them, the lawsuit says. Fish and Game officers who were conducting a night-hunting sting pulled the car over and one of the officers placed a gun to McLoud’s temple, the suit says. McLoud was arrested “based on the officers’ erroneous presumption that Mr. McLoud had earlier that evening shot a rifle at a mechanical decoy deer used in the night-hunting sting operation.” Fish and Game officers seized the firearms from McLoud’s uncle’s home. Among them was a “temporarily modified” Thompson Center Contender handgun. The lawsuit says an officer test fired it and concluded the sound the weapon made was the same as the shot he heard when someone fired at the decoy deer earlier that night. The lawsuit says the officers offered McLoud a deal. He would get his gun back if he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, paid a $50 fine, lost his license for 6 to 12 months and gave Fish and Game the expensive night scope attached to the gun. When McLoud rejected the deal, he was charged with illegal use of a silencing device, trespass, illegal night hunting and carrying a loaded firearm on a public highway. A judge found the Thompson Contender was illegally seized and couldn’t be used as evidence. The charges were dismissed. Nevertheless, the state petitioned for forfeiture of McLoud’s sound suppresser, the gun and the night vision device. The court, according to McLoud’s lawsuit, found the sound suppresser was contraband and ordered McLoud to forfeit it, and also the gun and the night vision equipment. The March 27, 2001, legislative hearing that prompted Alie’s alleged outburst dealt with a bill to change the legal definition of which firearm silencers are contraband. McLoud told The Union Leader the remarks were made in front of people he had encouraged to come to the legislative hearing to speak in favor of the bill. He says as a licensed gun manufacturer he makes sound suppressers and other equipment for police officers, and he is allowed to have them. Referring to the forfeiture of his equipment, McLoud said, “They seized it as contraband. It was not contraband. I had over a hundred of those items as inventory,” he said. McLoud says the officers coveted the night-vision equipment because they couldn’t get state funding to buy it. “I was willing to just get my equipment back and go away,” McLoud said. “They only had to swallow their pride, but they’re so pompous they can’t do that.”
Now THAT's funny! Can't you just see this guy's lawyer wetting his pants with glee as he reads this?
Hope he sues. Hope he wins!
Was he named by Mel Brooks? ("It's not a joke name! Bigus Dickus is a fwend of mine!")
It's always a mistake to put someone with a name like that in any position of authority. Unless he's been lobotomized, you know he's got an axe to grind that ain't never gonna be done. The guy's got to be a walking talking grudge on wheels. Ref. "A Boy Named Sue", J. Cash, for details of the principle.
I hope you weren't using night vision equipment at the time. Mr. "Head" is on this thread!
How are we going to find out who this mysterious Mr. Head is?
I dunno,maybe have a team of investigators follow his brother Potato around to see if they lead him to Richard?
On one visit to Podunk, he asked my husband and I if we would like to join him on a late evening stakeout with his decoy. Now decoys are not to be over six points here, as some judge considered placing a fake 12-pointer, on the side of any road, major entrapment. He placed the largest 6-pointer (I'm talking Boone and Crockett) I've ever seen on the side of the road and we basically played hide and wait. He was pumped. Several cars slowed down and a few even turned around for a return trip. Thankfully, no one shot at the decoy. During our 'stake-out' he described some of the authority granted to game wardens in our state. They can seize your vehicle, guns, and any property you have in your vehicle at their whim. I was almost scary. We basically decided to believe his new stance - that he was far superior to us - and our friendship has waned over the years. No big loss.
As with most law enforcement agencies and groups, there are good ones and bad ones, though my impression of the IDNR cops was that there were an awful lot of political hacks among their number. A couple of years back, one made the mistake of reaching for his handgun while *inspecting* a rowboat with a couple of fishermen in it on the Illinois side of the Wabash River- who happened to be feds working a stakeout, and the Indiana D.N.R. cop not only found himself facing a pair of DEA 9mm submachineguns, but they took him into custody for criminal assault and handcuffed him like any other criminal- though the local Illinois State's Attorney declined to press the case against the Hoosier possum cop. A photo of the *suspect in custody* made its way to an area newspaper however, and I suspect that the bigshot game warden now also has a sufficient NADDIS file at DEA to keep him from ever gaining any real position of authority in a law enforcement job again.
But most of the problems in Indiana's D.N.R. seemed to come from the top, as when Governor Evan Bayh's appointee Patrick Ralston ran the I.D.N.R. as his personal kingdom through the 1980s and '90s. Ever wonder why the IDNR could only keep three female Conservation Officers until Ralston left? Perhaps there's a answer to be found in the story about at least one of Pat Ralston's own poaching incidents, to be found *here*.
Huh huh, huh... His friends call him Dick. Huh huh..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.