This just in from the Town of Shandaken Police: 68-year-old Algernon Reese, of Old Plank Road in Mount Tremper, has been arrested on charges that he used an excavator to dig a trench through a neighbor's property without permission, and disturbed a stream without a permit.
From a press release from the Shandaken Police Department:
Reese was charged with 1 count of Felony Criminal Mischief after a complaint from his neighbors that Reese had used an excavator to dig a 3-foot wide by 30-foot long trench through their property without permission. Additionally Reese was charged by NYS ECON Police with 1 Misdemeanor count of Disturbing a Protected Stream. Reese was arraigned in Shandaken Court and released.
This isn't the first time Reese has run afoul of local conservation law. Reese has been found guilty on several occasions of doing stream work without a permit. From the Phoenicia Times, March 2009:
On February 26, Algernon Reese was found to be guilty, by a jury trial, of “Obstructing governmental administration in the second degree,” a class A Misdemeanor of NYS Penal Law, in the Town of Shandaken Justice Court, before Judge Miranda. The prosecution was based on an incident on September 3, 2008, involving Reese and the NYS Environmental Conservation Police, who were on Reese’s property with a search warrant checking for environmental violations and damage to the Esopus Creek from a prior incident and disturbance by Reese.
Reese was also found guilty of the earlier charge. The Olive Press wrote about Reese's first trial in August of 2008. An excerpt:
“I’m a homeowner, a strong conservationist. I own a humble home that occasionally floods.” Reese said in his summary argument. “In order to protect myself I have to take certain actions.”
[Assistant D.A. Dana] Blackmon, for the prosecution, noted that Reese had basically admitted to all he was charged with and what was at stake was a matter of law, not of the judiciousness of such legislation.
“I sympathize with him and anyone who lives next to the Esopus and gets flooding,” he said. “But you shouldn’t give sympathy to someone who decides to work without a permit. I’m not a tree hugger but there are laws, and the properties of neighbors to consider.”
