Schuylkill pair wanted permit to
trade deer but now face charges
By Gerry McClenahan Special to The Morning Call August 1, 2003 | A Schuylkill County couple who applied to the state Game Commission for a permit to give away or trade deer born in captivity on their farm say the commission later singled them out for fines and charged them with illegal transfer of wildlife.
The commission on June 25 filed illegal transfer charges and charges of giving false statements against Tracy and Allen Johns of North Manheim Township. The charges carry a total fine of $1,100. A hearing has not been scheduled, but the Johnses say they will fight some of the charges in court.
The case is the second in recent months receiving publicity involving state Wildlife Conservation Officer William Dingman.
Dingman in December charged Barbara Gosselin, 65, of South Manheim Township, with keeping a wild gray squirrel named Nutkin as a pet and ordered her to turn it over to authorities.
Gosselin also is fighting the matter in county court, saying she brought the squirrel with her when she moved from South Carolina, where keeping it was legal, and fears that it will be euthanized if she turns it over.
Game Commission officials said this week they stand by Dingman and the citations, and dismiss the Johnses' complaints as bitterness over being correctly cited for the violations.
''People don't like to be arrested,'' spokeswoman Cheryl Trewella said. ''The officer is required to enforce the law.''
The Johnses say their trouble started after they spent a frustrating year trying to get a propagation permit to give or trade a few fawns born each year on their 5-acre farm, where they keep 15 white-tailed deer.
State law allows people to keep deer, but not transfer them.
'We just wanted to make sure they don't inbreed, and when we found out that we couldn't give them away, we did the right thing and applied for a permit,'' Allen Johns said.
But Johns said that on one of three visits the commission made to inspect their fencing as part of the permitting process, Dingman revealed the couple were being investigated over a complaint by a neighbor. The Johnses claim there was an ongoing dispute with the neighbor, and the neighbor instigated the Game Commission complaint out of revenge.
The Johnses say they were asked to allow DNA testing of their deer and to furnish proof of where they got the money to improve the fence. They say commission officers wanted them to prove that they hadn't paid for improving the fence by selling deer.
''At first I agreed to everything, but they really gave me a hard time, refusing to believe that I built the fence myself,'' Allen Johns said. ''I finally got disgusted and told them to leave. Then things got nasty.''
The Johnses concede some of the citations are valid, but say Dingman abused his authority by subjecting the family to four hours of questioning during a search of their home, issuing citations against both of them for actions committed only by one, and ''throwing in'' two fines totaling $420 for false statements each allegedly made on a date when they say only one spoke to officers.
Dingman was ''doing the job he was entrusted to do,'' Trewella said. ''Obviously he feels that he can prove this case in court. Be assured that there is more to this story. Unfortunately it is not proper for us to discuss a pending case. The evidence will presented in court.''
Allen Johns admits that in spring 2002, he gave a fawn to a licensed propagator, then replaced the fawn when it died. The couple also told the commission that Allen Johns signed receipts allowing the same propagator to take away two aging deer that belonged to Johns' father in 2001.
''We never lied to them at all,'' Tracy Johns said. ''In fact, we told them everything well before the search. And the day they say I lied, I am 100 percent sure that I never spoke to any of them at all.''
The Johnses say the April 30 search upset them most.
They say five commission officers were in their home when Tracy and her 13-year-old son arrived.
The Johnses say the boy was not allowed to enter the home for four hours while commission officials with a search warrant went though all of the couple's files and photos, including the boy's medical records and Allen Johns' gun collection and the tax records for his business, Allen K. Johns Plumbing and Heating.
''They even went through my underwear drawer,'' Tracy Johns said. ''It really scares me that they can do this and they are not even the police. They answer to no one.''
A scientist brought by the commission took swabs from a pregnant doe to compare the DNA with that of the fawn the couple is charged with giving away in spring 2002.
Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said DNA testing is a routine procedure for the commission.
''I wouldn't say it's frequent, but it has been done to discover the origin of an animal, say to compare guts in the field to meat in a freezer,'' Feaser said.
The search warrant issued by Orwigsburg District Justice James Ferrier says the commission was seeking evidence of illegal transfers, to which the couple admitted, and that they had brought an injured wild fawn to the home, as the neighbor alleged.
No evidence of the wild fawn was found, and the couple face no related charges.
''We would have just given them everything they got, and they wouldn't have had to turn my whole house inside out,'' Tracy Johns said.
The Johnses said the commission has not responded to inquiries about the status of their application for a propagation permit.
Trewella said there has never been a formal complaint filed with the commission against Dingman. Dingman could not be reached.
Gerry McClenahan is a freelance writer.
Copyright (c) 2003, The Morning Call
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