Page 11 - the NOISE July 2014

IntheincidentreportfiledbyDeputyJason Schneider it is noted that the other party had a different description of what transpired:
“I asked White if he was out of his vehicle when [the first man] came up and started choking him. White said, ‘Not at all. One- hundred percent.’ I asked him if his helmet was on during this incident. White said, ‘My helmet was on and I was in the four-point harness.”
The deputy notes there were no visible injuries on either party except for redness in the whites of Mr. White’s eyes. The deputy reported to Mr. White the other man had stated he had only restrained Mr. White in self-defense.
Deputy Jason Lurkins also arrived on the scene and initiated interviews with the drivers of the two yellow quads and the white pickup. They identified themselves as employees of Recreation Resource Management, a private concessionaire that has a seasonal permit to operate the Wing Mountain Snow Play Area.
In his report, Dpty. Lurkins wrote the driver of the pickup initiated the conversation, stating there were “frequently issues with ATVs, motorcycles and UTV riders accessing the Wing Mountain SPA unlawfully and causing resource damage.” He continued to say they had “frequently chased ATV and UTV riders out of the snowplay area which is a restricted, no motorized vehicle area.”
When Dpty. Lurkins interviewed the man driving the quad, he stated:
“At one point he thought White was trying to get out of the driver seat of his Razor. He said as White got up he was uncertain what White’s intentions were due to his already displayed belligerent behavior and placed his hand on White’s helmet in the face mask area and pushed him back into his UTV.”
With these contrary reports from the involved parties, the deputies on scene assessed the situation as best they could but it was clearly a case of “he said, she said” from their perspective. At this stage, Dpty. Lurkins indicated that he attempted to contact USFS law enforcement “to see if they wanted an officer to respond due to the fact the incident was occurring on Forest Service land and involved Forest Service contractors.”
He wrote: “I was unable to make contact with any Forest Service law enforcement officer.” After taking statements from all of
the individuals involved, the deputies determined they would be willing to issue some verbal warnings and let the incident go. But Mr. White insisted he wanted to see the man who grabbed him charged with assault. Dpty. Lurkins explained that, since the stories about the incident were conflicting, the only thing he could do was charge both parties with Disorderly Conduct, and in his report, wrote: “Due to the fact that White was indicating where he made entry into the snowplay area was not signed, we would not be able to pursue a trespass charge.”
According to Coconino National Forest Public Affairs Officer, Brady Smith, “Wing Mountain Snow Play Area is operated by Recreation Resource Management under a special use permit. The permit covers 50 acres and 1.2 miles of the entrance road (FR222B).” Access to the area is subject to the amount of snowfall there so it had been closed February 2, temporarily at first, but the closure continued until RRM closed officially on the morning of Mr. White’s altercation, February 16 — according to its Facebook
pageforWingMountain. Mr.SmithsaidRRM officially left the area February 22.
Through email correspondence, Warren Meyer, President of RRM and the Authorizing Officer for the Wing Mountain permit said:
“We have a permit with the USFS that gives us affirmative responsibility to protect the lands we are temporarily leasing, and our guys did that as best they knew how.” He admits, however, that this incident has given him pause.
“My reaction to this incident was to discuss with my manager and the US Forest Service whether we should be policing trespassers at all in this area. Our permit gives us an affirmative responsibility to protect the land and resources, but I told my manager I did not want my employees endangering their own safety by challenging trespassers, particularly ones like this one who clearly knew they were trespassing and were not just lost. While I know my employees were trying to do the right thing in our partnership with the USFS, it’s not worth the safety issues. I also asked the USFS to improve the gates at least one point where people can drive around it.”
Describing his assessment of the incident involving his employees and Mr. White, he said the details are in dispute. “Our employee claims the citizen was belligerent, almost irrational. The citizen claims our employee offered some kind of physical or verbal assault on him. The sheriff, who we called, it should be noted, charged everyone. The charges against our employee were dismissed at the first opportunity.” Mr. White has a court date in early June. [Editor’s NOTE: all police reports indicate their response was to a call made by Mr. White.]
“Obviously,” continued Mr. Meyer, “verbal or physical assault on customers is not something we tolerate. The employee left the company just after the incident occurred, since the snow play area was closed, so the issue of employee discipline was moot. As I mentioned before, we have since changed our policies to protect our employees in such encounters with potentially dangerous trespassers.”
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In response to this story, questions which have come up in the mind of this writer, who has reported for three years on the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act and its relation to private concessionaires and the court-negated (see page 6) fee program, include:
Do special use permits issued by the USFS to private companies mean the area covered by the permit becomes private, rather than public land?
Are employees of private concessionaires adequately and properly trained to handle conflict when it occurs?
Why did RRM employees never identify themselves to Mr. White?
Even if Mr. White had entered an area in which he did not belong, would this encounter have had a different outcome if he had been met by USFS employees instead?
| Cindy Cole is a writer, photographer, naturalist & mother known to sun on Oak Creek’s
banks overlooking Cathedral Rock.
cindycole@live.com
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