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| Messages 1 - 11 of total 11 in this topic |
Bullwinkle
Boulder climber
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He's back in the Slammer, seems he has a thing for young boys. . .
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Le petit reverse... I bet those boys don't do jail very well.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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He's back in the slammer...seems he has a thing for boys....is he also a priest...? rj
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Very creepy indeed. Saw him at a park service halloween party once, dressed up as Dracula. Perfect outfit for him. Didn't even seem like a costume.
I heard about the leg breaking incident. Can't think of anyone that deserved it more. I ended up in front of him and Pitts a few times. Not a good place to be.
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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Well, Connelly pretty much set the entire tone for treating BASE jumpers, from what I know.
So I guess from the report that he got busted for kidnapping and all that. Got convicted of four counts of child molestation, and was out in a year, give or take.
Now what I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO DO is to say that Yosemite LEO is a bunch of child molesters. Or even bad guys. That is the old Ad Hominem attack and is the realm of the mentally imcompentent. So please don't take this the wrong way. When I had a kid, I went absolutely berzerk over drunk drivers and people speeding down my street, which was full of kids most sunny days. So I like cops. I might not agree with a lot of laws, but cops don't write them.
I think that it is pretty clear from what I have said in other posts that I am not trying to pick a fight with LEO. That will lead only to hard feelings. I only mention Connelly because he helped start the overboard BASE actions. Where catching a jumper became a huge deal, just like getting a deer head mounted on your wall. I would like the LEO to look back and maybe try to get this right. There are decades of history in this whole BASE story. I was around back then, and seem to be about the only one who is kind of connected. I remember the early days very well.
edit: Clint, I looked it up, but I didn't type in the full name.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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There was one interesting article that came up, but it was about Judge Donald Pitts.
It was in the NY Times and said Pitts was a former smokejumper, among other things.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/20/us/he-was-the-law-and-order-amid-tooth-and-claw.html
He Was the Law and Order Amid Tooth and Claw
Published: September 20, 1993
YOSEMITE VALLEY, Calif.— His graying hair is shoulder-length, he sports a bolo tie, cowboy boots and jeans and
owns a 128-pound Rottweiler named Bailiff who accompanies him to court.
His appearance, explained Donald W. Pitts, a United States Magistrate in Yosemite National Park,
is intended to relax the defendants who find themselves in a Federal court wearing shorts.
And the dog, he said with a laugh, is to put a little fear back into their hearts.
This month, the 65-year-old judge retires, bringing to an end 18 years of passing judgment on the unlawful behavior of urban Americans on vacation.
His little courthouse near a 2,400-foot waterfall is the scene of a daily drama of tourists whose holidays he cannot help but ruin.
More People, More Trouble
Judge Pitts's jurisdiction is the park's 1,100 square miles, an area about the size of Rhode Island.
Of the national parks, only Yellowstone and Yosemite have their own court and judge.
In Judge Pitts's time, crime has gone up each year as the number of people visiting the park has gone to four million, from two million.
Judge Pitts's jurisdiction, from Yosemite National Park to the adjacent Stanislaus National Forest, probably includes more animals than people.
He judges and sentences those accused of Federal misdemeanors, like drunken driving, shoplifting and stealing wood.
If the crime is a felony or if the accused wants to appeal a decision, Judge Pitts
sends the case to the district court judge in Fresno, 100 miles away.
Most people who come before him are not criminals, the judge said.
They are merely visitors who want to commune with nature.
But they quickly discover the ubiquitous park rangers who seem to appear whenever a traveler makes a wrong move.
"The urban American is not a stalker," the judge said. "He does not have an idea that someone is in the woods watching him,
so he'll turn his radio up loud or throw a McDonald's wrapper on the ground."
The Demeanors Differ
Tan and glum, tourists and some of the 2,500 people working in the park end up in Judge Pitts's court,
either shamed and ready to pay fines or determined to take their cases, whether they are charged with parachuting from a cliff
or feeding the bears, all the way to the Supreme Court.
It is Judge Pitts's job to nudge defendants charged with petty offenses into just paying the fines
so that the Fresno judge is not inundated with dog-off-leash cases.
Though there is the occasional homicide, Yosemite's most memorable incident may have been a 1970 confrontation
between park rangers and hundreds of people taking L.S.D. and illegally camping in a meadow.
In the clash remembered by park officials as the "Riot at Stoneman's Bridge,"
rangers with baseball bats confronted the crowd but were quickly overwhelmed.
Even when local police and sheriff's deputies arrived, they could not subdue the crowd.
Law enforcement retreated for the night and after several days made mass arrests.
"It was total anarchy," said Scott Connelly, the Federal prosecutor at Yosemite's court for 20 years, who was not on the scene at the time.
"We said, 'We lose' and gave up,' " he said of the authorities' retreat.
Scorn From Nixon
The incident received national attention and the scorn of President Richard M. Nixon,
who instigated changes at the National Park Service to increase the law-enforcement aspect of a park ranger's job.
Now, people complain that every move is under surveillance.
"It looks like there are more police here than tourists," said Don Adkins, 50, a locksmith from San Francisco.
Mr. Adkins appeared in front of Judge Pitts to dispute a $100 ticket for not wearing a helmet while driving a motorcycle in a parking lot.
"It reminds me of the military. There's a regulation for everything."
That may be the case, Judge Pitts said. But the park is a delicate environment and with more than 20,000 people
visiting every summer day, park rangers need to be vigilant.
In the end, the judge reduced the fine to $50.
He remembers the park arsonist who burned buildings in protest of encroaching civilization.
He was sent to a mental institution, Judge Pitts said.
Then there was the expensive but unsuccessful search for a man who orchestrated his own disappearance to leave his wife.
When the man turned up eight months later in another town, he was brought back to Yosemite and fined $10,000 for the park's expenses.
There are also what the judge calls "the crazies,"
like the man who said he needed to camp away from a campground because he needed a clear area to receive radio messages from space.
The man was found living in a closed campground and was fined $50.
He was also escorted out of the park.
Fondness for Jumpers
A former fire parachutist for the National Forest Service, the judge expressed a fondness for the daredevils
who illegally jump from the 3,600-foot high, concave monolith called El Capitan or the 8,800-foot high Half Dome.
The crime carries a $1,500 fine, a year's probation and the jumper's parachute, which may be worth as much as $2,000, is confiscated.
Instead of paying the fine, a Minnesotan asked and received community service -- demonstrating jumps for children.
One evening the judge was with friends looking at El Capitan in the moonlight when he heard the popping sound of four jumpers releasing their parachutes.
Park rangers arrested the four along with two women who had jumped earlier. One of the women had broken her back in the fall.
When the woman with the broken back appeared in court, Judge Pitts told her about his own jumping experiences
and the technical mistake she might have made leading to her accident.
When would she be able to jump again, she asked earnestly.
"I'm a judge," he told the woman. "Consult your doctor."
The judge shows little mercy in dealing with people who feed the bears.
Some parents have tied raw steaks to tent posts hoping to attract a bear to show their children.
When a bear becomes used to eating campers' food, it frequents campsites more and more, growing more aggressive and dangerous.
In the end, the park service may have to shoot a bear to protect campers.
The penalty for feeding bears is up to a $70 fine and a lecture from the judge.
Judge Pitts recalled one man who woke up to see a bear trying to get into his camper shell for food.
The man yelled, causing the animal to start toward him.
He was able to scare off the bear only by shooting into the air,
but those shots alerted a park ranger, who arrested the man for having a loaded gun.
Calling the case "absurd," the judge let the man off.
With retirement approaching, Judge Pitts is now changing roles, from the sympathetic adjudicator to hospitality host.
He and his wife, Kay, will run a three-room bed and breakfast at his home near the park.
He will still be meeting a lot of people, Judge Pitts said.
"But they won't be people in trouble, and they'll be paying me money."
Photo: This month, 65-year-old Donald W. Pitts, a United States Magistrate in Yosemite National Park, retires.
He was recently photographed with his 128-pound Rottweiler, Bailiff, who accompanies him to court.
(John Walker/The Fresno Bee)
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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his 128-pound Rottweiler, Bailiff
what? that is a big puppy
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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The fondness for jumpers part is total crap.
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Gawd- that picture of Connelly is positively chilling. That's the Connelly I remember, plus a few years.
Kevin, it's been a long time since we lived in the Annex parking lot near each other.... What was the name of The Goddess you were with then? Where are you at these days??
Don!
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
suspendedhappynation
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When Oakshotte and I stole Dales Bread truck out from under the rangers in the C4 parking lot - Connelly showed up where we had parked alongside the Merced below El Portal.
We taunted him and he went purple with rage!
It was wonderful and a bit scary to see him so wound up!
Later that day when we had restored the brakes (another story- yikes) we were pulled over out on Triangle road by a CHP. It became obvious that he had gotten word about the heist - but he let us know that he felt there were "small minds with power" involved. We got away with a simple fix-it ticket!!
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