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Scary times can be amusing too
(by Dave Lange - November 03, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Scary times can be amusing too
It may be mere coincidence that Election Day arrives on the heels of Halloween. During the month prior to the holidays that dredge up scary beings like witches, goblins and politicians, local police departments receive numerous reports of petty thefts involving pumpkins and campaign signs.
It makes me wonder whether juvenile pumpkin thieves grow up to become childish sign thieves.
On the evening of Oct. 17, Terry Carson, a onetime Bainbridge Township trustee and husband of the current chairwoman of the Geauga County Democratic Party, and William Young, a current Geauga County commissioner and Republican stalwart, crossed paths.
Mr. Young filed a report with the Bainbridge Police Department to the effect that Republican campaign signs he had seen standing earlier on the property of a vacant restaurant on Chillicothe Road (Route 306) were in the possession of Mr. Carson and his wife, Janet Carson. Mr. Young, who also is a former mayor of South Russell, said he questioned the couple about the signs and was told they weren't authorized to be there. In fact, Mr. Young reported to police that Mr. Carson told him he actually owned the property.
Mr. Carson, for his part, soon showed up at the police station with seven offending political signs, and a statement taken at that time indicated that he had found them in his yard. That statement subsequently was clarified to indicate that the Republican signs had been on the North Woods Grille property. Mr. Carson claimed some sort of authority over the property as its insurer and said he had been authorized by the nephew of the deceased owner to post Democratic Party signs there.
A telephone call by Police Chief James Jimison to a representative of the restaurant indicated that no one had been given permission to post political signs there, but there were no objections to anyone doing so.
Political operatives, like their younger counterparts, the pumpkin bandits, are known to sneak onto other people's property, including the public's rights of way, to do their deeds.
Doing so without permission is known as trespassing, and whoever originally placed the Republican signs at the restaurant did not get permission. Thus, establishing ownership of the illicit signs could be problematic. And the insinuation that a theft may have occurred, which led Bainbridge police to forward the case to the Geauga County Prosecutor's Office for a determination, is a bit farfetched. How can something be stolen from a place where it had been left by trespassers?
But then, Mr. Young, who was not the original owner of the signs and had not entered the property without authorization to post them, showed up at the police station to claim ownership -- to which the police readily agreed. While it is not the usual practice of police to release recovered property -- in this case, potential evidence in a crime -- without proof of ownership, perhaps membership in the Republican Party supersedes standard procedure.
Mr. Young then proceeded to get permission from the restaurant owner's representative and to plop the illicit signs for which he apparently acquired ownership back in the ground on the property.
And now, Mr. Carson, who may or may not have had authority to pluck the signs either from his yard or from the restaurant property, depending on which police statement is to be believed, wants an apology.
Pardon me for being amused.
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