TheTallOne
Junior Member
I currenyly reside in washington state, in the small town of ellensburg.
This is kind of a long story and I've been trying to think of defenses for myself and needed some help. First off, I was fishing on the yakima river on memorial day (may 30th). Two friends and I crossed this large river by wading across the river downstream to get to the remote side of the river (no roads, houses, etc) which I later found out after talking to the game warden that it was private land. As we are fishing, two game wardens came ashore further up stream via boat and walked down to us to catch us with whatever we were doing. Now, the rules, which I was unaware of, consisted of catch and release, no barbed hooks, and no treble hooks. I was fishing with barbed hooks which didn't please them. When I grabbed my tackle box from our backpack they saw two beers, that's all we brought, not sure why exactly. We had not been drinking but the wardens insisted, well, demanded, that we get back across stream to our cars to talk. Well, needless to say we had to swim the river because wading upstream along the shallows is impossible. I thought this was just cruel because they knew the impossibilities of getting back across the river. They said they had no life preservers to get us into the boat and get us across the river safely so we sucked it up and swam. They took our keys so we wouldn't run away, our cell phones, and everything exept our rods. Once at the car lot, another officer, whom I understood to be a senior warden of some sort was present. He came right up to me and asked if I had any beer in my car, which I did because a 22 year old male had left it in the trunk of my explorer and didn't take it, not an excuse I know, but it was an honest mistake. I knew the officer had already looking through the window and saw the beer to I said yes. I had no beer to drink that day, none whatsoever and demanded that the officer give me a PBT and he refused. He ticketed me with an Minor in Possession/Consumption, which I understand is liable because of the 14 beers in the trunk. Does anyone know any ways out of this ticket? I will battle this case till the end because I don't think that I did much of anything wrong, the beer simply was not mine.
I understand the rules of MIP's having one on my record, that I wasn't supposed to be in possession of any alcohol. However, this was the most honest and most cooperative mistake I've ever made and don't feel I should have gotten one. My question is this, are there any ruless or regulations they might have gone against in order to give me this ticket? (my friends also go ticketed with an MIP). Possibley harrasement for making us travel the river, which we would have done more safely crossing a bridge about 2 hours away, whcih was our original plan. Can game wardens have this much power to do so? What about not providing life preservers? If the 22 year old male were to testify and explain that this was his mistake would the prosecuter accept that? Any suggestions? Please?
I've done some research and have not found any reference on their website as to any alcohol related subjects found in Criminal chapter 9 and 9A. Search for "fish and wildlife washington" in google to find their website. I would also like to know what constitures harrassement? Thank You
This is kind of a long story and I've been trying to think of defenses for myself and needed some help. First off, I was fishing on the yakima river on memorial day (may 30th). Two friends and I crossed this large river by wading across the river downstream to get to the remote side of the river (no roads, houses, etc) which I later found out after talking to the game warden that it was private land. As we are fishing, two game wardens came ashore further up stream via boat and walked down to us to catch us with whatever we were doing. Now, the rules, which I was unaware of, consisted of catch and release, no barbed hooks, and no treble hooks. I was fishing with barbed hooks which didn't please them. When I grabbed my tackle box from our backpack they saw two beers, that's all we brought, not sure why exactly. We had not been drinking but the wardens insisted, well, demanded, that we get back across stream to our cars to talk. Well, needless to say we had to swim the river because wading upstream along the shallows is impossible. I thought this was just cruel because they knew the impossibilities of getting back across the river. They said they had no life preservers to get us into the boat and get us across the river safely so we sucked it up and swam. They took our keys so we wouldn't run away, our cell phones, and everything exept our rods. Once at the car lot, another officer, whom I understood to be a senior warden of some sort was present. He came right up to me and asked if I had any beer in my car, which I did because a 22 year old male had left it in the trunk of my explorer and didn't take it, not an excuse I know, but it was an honest mistake. I knew the officer had already looking through the window and saw the beer to I said yes. I had no beer to drink that day, none whatsoever and demanded that the officer give me a PBT and he refused. He ticketed me with an Minor in Possession/Consumption, which I understand is liable because of the 14 beers in the trunk. Does anyone know any ways out of this ticket? I will battle this case till the end because I don't think that I did much of anything wrong, the beer simply was not mine.
I understand the rules of MIP's having one on my record, that I wasn't supposed to be in possession of any alcohol. However, this was the most honest and most cooperative mistake I've ever made and don't feel I should have gotten one. My question is this, are there any ruless or regulations they might have gone against in order to give me this ticket? (my friends also go ticketed with an MIP). Possibley harrasement for making us travel the river, which we would have done more safely crossing a bridge about 2 hours away, whcih was our original plan. Can game wardens have this much power to do so? What about not providing life preservers? If the 22 year old male were to testify and explain that this was his mistake would the prosecuter accept that? Any suggestions? Please?
I've done some research and have not found any reference on their website as to any alcohol related subjects found in Criminal chapter 9 and 9A. Search for "fish and wildlife washington" in google to find their website. I would also like to know what constitures harrassement? Thank You
