Nix Ohio's Hunter Harassment Laws
On Nov. 22, 2017, the eve before Thanksgiving, false arrests were made in Seven Hills, Ohio, for allegedly "preventing hunting by creating noise" and "possession of criminal tools" while peaceful, nonviolent residents were enjoying private property they'd visited hundreds of times.
LACK OF EVIDENCE, JUDICIAL PREJUDICE AND DENIAL OF FAIR TRIAL: There was an allegation defendants made noise, but hunter's cell phone video shows nothing but a female quietly walking through the woods, nothing in hand. Defendants were denied their right to prove there was no evidence because crooked Judge Timothy Gilligan in Parma Municipal Court denied defendant her right to trial by blackmailing her: "If you refuse to plead no contest or guilty, I will force your co-defendant out of his first-time offender's program and into trial with you." Judge Gilligan then refused defendant consult with her counsel for even one moment to discuss a plea, then denied her attorney a motion to dismiss based on charges actually being civil, not criminal, in Ohio, by stating, "Too bad, missy, I'm the judge you're stuck with." Crooked Judge Gilligan made all these decisions off the record -- including hostile, obviously misogynistic and intimidating remarks to defendants' female attorney, before turning the court recording device back on. Later, when transcripts were picked up, all Judge Gilligan's corrupt, unlawful statements were completely missing, PLUS, comments never made by Judge Gilligan during actual proceedings were deceptively added in at the end of transcripts, to the effect of forbidding co-defendant the right to return to the property of her close friend.
PRIVATE PROPERTY AND CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: The couple was not trespassing or making much, if any, noise. In fact, defendant had laryngitis!
PRIOR USE/PEACEFUL ENJOYMENT OF ADJACENT PROPERTY WELL-ESTABLISHED: The arresting officer, himself a hunter who -- proven via public records -- hunts ILLEGALLY in Seven Hills. DEFENDANTS HAD ALREADY BEEN PEACEFULLY ENJOYING THIS PROPERTY FOR YEARS BEFORE THIS OUT-OF-STATE HUNTER INVADED THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND PUT AN END TO OTHERS' RIGHTS.
Defendants had permission to be on the property anytime they wanted, including to cut through to the city park and recreation areas, and to check on neighbor's pets, socialize and take walks.
The arrest and convictions transpired, not because defendants broke criminal laws, but because they were targeted animal activists with a history of resistance, including a civil lawsuit against Seven Hills for passing an illegal "emergency" hunting ordinance to begin with.
There's a middle school, baseball and soccer fields and hikers fewer than 300 feet from the hunter's treestand. The type of bow hunting by crossbow involves arrows can travel five times that distance.
Co-defendant was sentenced in CRIMINAL court Jan. 24, 2018 for a CIVIL matter, and is now appealing the judgment. SHE WILL BE THE FIRST PERSON IN OHIO HISTORY to challenge the state's unconstitutional "Hunter Harassment" laws that infringe on adjacent property owner and everyone else's rights, peaceful, SAFE enjoyment, moral objection to killing, and free speech/First Amendment rights. Also, because the hunter, arresting officer and judge acted as a unified front of good ole boys misogynists, this suit is a strike back against the violent, corrupt, abusive, disempowering institutions that violate animals, women and all Ohioans.
This Appeals, if won, protects OHIOANS' First Amendment rights. Ohioans, whether known activists or not, should not have to live in fear of false arrest, criminal convictions over civil matters, or powerlessness over Ohio's hunting network and its government and judicial sympathizers.
CIVIL SUIT ALSO SEES JUDICIAL CORRUPTION: Oct. 2018, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Russo refused to process a HIGHER, appeals court civil ruling in favor of plaintiff Lucy McKernan for damages by Seven Hills passage of an illegal hunting ordinance. During proceedings and discussions, Judge Joe Russo made blatantly biased remarks concerning the substance of the case, is friends with defendant's counsel Seven Hills law director Richard Pignatiello, has a conflict of interest, and should now be forced to recuse himself.
One month after the unconstitutional and false arrest, the same hunter in Seven 7hills fatally wounded a mother deer IFO her fawns. The doe ran out IFO co-defendant's vehicle, bleeding profusely from the lethal heart-lung area on her right side, then ran off and was never tracked by the lousy hunter. She suffered and died slowly. Co-defendant was traumatized, continues to suffer from emotional trauma, panic attacks and flashbacks. The police protected the hunter, lied about it to the public and covered it up.
This is the same city government that quashed McKernan's valid Referendum Oct. 2016 -- another constitutional violation -- that would have put the hunting issue on the ballot after a non-binding advisory vote in the hope residents would have finally voted it down.
Show Seven Hills, Ohio Division of Wildlife, judges, hunters, and all Ohioans it's time to restore the power to the people, not the violent, wicked good ole boy hunters and their misogynistic, corrupt judicial sympathizers.
Give what you can today.
