I've posted many of the photos of the large signs a local farmer has been posting in town. He has the only remaining dairy farm withing the Hamlet of Worcester, NY. "Hamlet" is a legal designation of the center of town where stores and the village exists. His farm is grandfathered in since farming is now illegal in the Hamlet.
I'm not reposting all the photos. Here's the story as printed today in the "big city" Oneonta newspaper 25 miles away.
February 24, 2012 Oneonta Daily Star
Area man targets D.A. with signs along road
BY JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer
WORCESTER -- If you ask dairy farmer Dan Stannard why he erected homemade billboards along state Route 7 that criticize Otsego County's top prosecutor and an environmental conservation officer, he'll likely say it all goes back to one day in November when he encountered an aggressive raccoon.
"This rabid raccoon came right in here and tried to attack me," Stannard recalled Thursday as he stood on a muddy pathway outside his barn. "I threw rocks at him, and did everything in my power to get him to go on. He would not go on. So I shot him."
While Stannard was convinced he did nothing wrong, state Department of Environmental Conservation Officer Mark Vencak didn't quite see things that way. After a citizen reported the raccoon shooting, Vencak cited Stannard for discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a structure. The case would be handled in Worcester Town Court.
In the weeks that followed, the Otsego County District Attorney's office offered a plea agreement that would end the prosecution if Stannard paid a fine, District Attorney John Muehl said.
But Stannard refused to take the deal. Since getting the citation, he said he has had to go to court five times and has another court date in early March. He said he was within his rights to kill that raccoon, which he took as a threat to him and his herd of approximately 60 cows. Recently, he noted, a coyote made a meal of one of his animals.
Stannard said that after killing the raccoon, he disposed of it before it could be tested for rabies.
In recent weeks, Stannard put up plywood signs that criticize both Muehl and Vencak.
One directed at Muehl states: "YOU GO EASY ON CHILD MOLESTERS. ARE YOU ONE?"
Stannard said he chose that line of attack, even though it has nothing to do with the raccoon case, because a young relative had been molested several years ago, and he said he believes the man responsible was not appropriately punished.
Muehl told The Daily Star that Stannard's use of prominent road signs to attack him is having no effect.
"If he thinks this is bothering me, it's not," Muehl said. "I'm a public official, so I am required to have thicker skin. I'm going to do my job the way I see fit."
He noted the s*x offenders he prosecutes invariably end up getting tough sentences.
On Wednesday, a state Department of Transportation official from the agency's Oneonta office, Jerry Murello, went to Worcester and urged Stannard to remove the signs, Stannard said.
Stannard said, "I'm not taking down the signs unless there is a court order."
State DOT spokesman Bill Naylor said he was trying to compile information on Murello's visit to Worcester and had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, Stannard said he won't be satisfied until the charge against him is dismissed.
"Mark Vencak said I should have hit that raccoon on the head with a shovel," he said. "But, heck, I'm not gettin' that close. I used to coon hunt, so I've seen how high they can jump. I didn't have no choice but to kill him."
I'm not reposting all the photos. Here's the story as printed today in the "big city" Oneonta newspaper 25 miles away.
February 24, 2012 Oneonta Daily Star
Area man targets D.A. with signs along road
BY JOE MAHONEY Staff Writer
WORCESTER -- If you ask dairy farmer Dan Stannard why he erected homemade billboards along state Route 7 that criticize Otsego County's top prosecutor and an environmental conservation officer, he'll likely say it all goes back to one day in November when he encountered an aggressive raccoon.
"This rabid raccoon came right in here and tried to attack me," Stannard recalled Thursday as he stood on a muddy pathway outside his barn. "I threw rocks at him, and did everything in my power to get him to go on. He would not go on. So I shot him."
While Stannard was convinced he did nothing wrong, state Department of Environmental Conservation Officer Mark Vencak didn't quite see things that way. After a citizen reported the raccoon shooting, Vencak cited Stannard for discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a structure. The case would be handled in Worcester Town Court.
In the weeks that followed, the Otsego County District Attorney's office offered a plea agreement that would end the prosecution if Stannard paid a fine, District Attorney John Muehl said.
But Stannard refused to take the deal. Since getting the citation, he said he has had to go to court five times and has another court date in early March. He said he was within his rights to kill that raccoon, which he took as a threat to him and his herd of approximately 60 cows. Recently, he noted, a coyote made a meal of one of his animals.
Stannard said that after killing the raccoon, he disposed of it before it could be tested for rabies.
In recent weeks, Stannard put up plywood signs that criticize both Muehl and Vencak.
One directed at Muehl states: "YOU GO EASY ON CHILD MOLESTERS. ARE YOU ONE?"
Stannard said he chose that line of attack, even though it has nothing to do with the raccoon case, because a young relative had been molested several years ago, and he said he believes the man responsible was not appropriately punished.
Muehl told The Daily Star that Stannard's use of prominent road signs to attack him is having no effect.
"If he thinks this is bothering me, it's not," Muehl said. "I'm a public official, so I am required to have thicker skin. I'm going to do my job the way I see fit."
He noted the s*x offenders he prosecutes invariably end up getting tough sentences.
On Wednesday, a state Department of Transportation official from the agency's Oneonta office, Jerry Murello, went to Worcester and urged Stannard to remove the signs, Stannard said.
Stannard said, "I'm not taking down the signs unless there is a court order."
State DOT spokesman Bill Naylor said he was trying to compile information on Murello's visit to Worcester and had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, Stannard said he won't be satisfied until the charge against him is dismissed.
"Mark Vencak said I should have hit that raccoon on the head with a shovel," he said. "But, heck, I'm not gettin' that close. I used to coon hunt, so I've seen how high they can jump. I didn't have no choice but to kill him."
