NORTHWESTERN SPORTSMENS CLUB

P.O.Box 58

West Springfield, PA 16443

To: WCO Michael Wojtecki, Erie County

RE: Hunter Trapper Education Program August 19 and 20, 2005

Dear Sir:

As the president of the Northwestern Sportsmens Club and an instructor of the Hunter-Trapper Education Program, I am filing this notice as a formal complaint on behalf of the parents and young hunters of this last program, August 19 and 20, and as President of the Northwestern Sportsmens Club.

The course was going very smooth and we were just about ready to start testing when Deputy WCO George Wilcosz decided to take over. At this point he was not in uniform and had done his presentation on the law the previous evening. He is not a member of the club or part of the team of presenters. His following actions were a disgrace to the Pennsylvania Game Commission and drew negative impact on myself from the parents of the participants of the program. Being the president of this organization I had to take care of apologizing for his conduct and rude behavior. His actions were extremely uncouth and immoral. The parents complained to me as well as the students in this class. I will outline his behavior.

1) We always give the participants a 10 minute break before we give the test. After we announced the ten minute break Deputy Wilcosz started to take over and tell all the participants they had to be back in 5 minutes. I tried to talk to him at this time about giving ten minutes but he ignored me.

2) After the class returned, Deputy Wilcosz became very verbal about the young students in the class: He first referred to them as children, then he stated that they have no common sense. He then started to harass students by setting them up with specific questions and even though the answer was right, he still belittled them.

3) He called a student up to the front of the classroom and thrust a shotgun at port arms against his body and told him to take it. The young man complied and then the deputy started to belittle and berate this young man in front of the group about why he took the shotgun from him. The young man tried to give it back to him but he refused to take it because the action was closed. He became very angry with this young man and embarrassed him in front of the class.

4) This intimidation and scare tactic continued for almost 45 minutes and this was before the test was to be given.

He had his chance the previous evening when he was to present these type of exercises to the group but he chose to take over at this time and basically upset the class prior to the test. He was out of control.

After the test he did not follow protocol by collecting the tests and then determining the people who passed or failed but he called each one up alphabetically and those that were on the bubble he told them to take a seat. This again singled out individuals who may not have passed and again the rest of the group witnessed this.

As president of the club, I had to talk to each parent and young hunter prior to them leaving to try and smooth things over. However I heard a lot of anger coming from parents about the fact that he started to harass the class prior to the test. I heard a lot of negative feedback about the behavior of the Deputy and about how the parents witnessed that one student was driven to tears by him. I did my best as president of the club to try and resolve your deputy’s behavior, however his behavior was somewhat reflected on my club. To sum up the parents views would take a long time but there is a lot of animosity from these new hunters towards the Pennsylvania Game Commission and it seemed that it was all on the part of your deputy. Many of the parents and young hunters told me that they felt that hunting was going to more trouble than what it was worth if they always have to be in fear of being arrested. They also relayed to me that the deputy seemed to be they type of person that would arrest anyone for almost nothing. The parents stated it to me and I witnessed this as well that he said in front of the group that he likes to arrest people. If anything came out of this course that seemed to be related directly to is that the Pennsylvania Game Commission is out to arrest people. You received a very negative review and if anything an air of anti-hunting seemed to be felt by the parents as well as the new graduates.

One other tragedy that I had to contend with was the student that did fail. I found her curled up under one of the eves of the clubhouse crying. It took a lot of counseling to get her out of the rain. I did get her out of the rain.

In all retrospect, the Pennsylvania Game Commission was represented as an abusive, authoritarian, intimidating group of individuals out to harass people in the woods. This is what I was told and this is what I am relaying to you. Is this what you want the public to identify you as? This negativism also reflected on my club. We have been doing the Hunter-Trapper Education program for over 30 years here and this time we were made to look bad by allowing Deputy Wilcosz to act in this unprofessional manner.

At this point, I am respectfully requesting that we, The Northwestern Sportsmens Club, be assigned another deputy. In our best interest as an organization, we do not want to be connected or viewed as an organization that allows abusive intimidating behaviors to anyone. We did speak to Deputy Wilcosz about his behavior after words and he seemed oblivious to what he had done. However the damage has been done and I believe that the Pennsylvania Game Commission and my club were both given a black eye by Deputy Wilcosz. But again, we are asking for another deputy at this time because the club as well as the students who come here to learn should not be subjected to abuse and intimidation.

Finally, you may be getting a lot of mail from the parents of these young hunters. They did ask for his name and how to spell it.

Thank you.

Respectfully,

Dr. Paul A. Bensur, Jr.

President

Northwestern Sportsmens Club

R.Senko

D.Hill

V.Ross