CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Health Department will conduct an inspection of the Great American Ball Park and the Reds' clubhouse after at least five people called a state hotline, complaining that when Reds players lighted up celebratory cigars after they clinched the NL Central it violated Ohio's smoking ban.
Department spokesman Rocky Merz said Friday that state law requires such an inspection after five complaints about the indoor smoking were phoned in.
Don't expect much to come of the inspection. Merz says further action is "highly unlikely."
Merz says an inspection must be done within 30 days and the Reds will be notified of the alleged violation.
He says the department realizes "everyone was celebrating" the victory and wishes the Reds well. Team spokesman Rob Butcher declined comment Friday.
WASHINGTON -- Abner Schoenwetter, a Miami seafood importer, spent six years in prison, paid tens of thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees and is at risk of losing his home. His crime? Agreeing to purchase lobster tails that federal prosecutors said violated harvest regulations -- in Honduras.
Now Schoenwetter, at age 64, is a convicted felon with an ailing wife, no job, no right to vote and has three years of supervised release ahead of him. But he's also a star witness for congressional efforts aimed at stemming what a growing number of legal experts and lawmakers consider ``overcriminalization'' -- the federal government's penchant for writing new laws to criminalize conduct that could be addressed with fines or other remedies. ``We must put an end to the notion that we need to prosecute every individual for every perceived offense,'' said Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee that last week held its second hearing on overcriminalization. ``We continue to lock up people for offenses that should not even require incarceration.'' ORDEAL BEGAN IN '99 Schoenwetter's ``nightmare'' began in 1999 when he and several co-defendants were charged with smuggling and conspiracy after agreeing to purchase lobster tails from the same supplier they'd been using for more than a decade. But this time, federal officials said the catch violated Honduran fishing regulations -- and therefore, the federal Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to import fish that violates foreign laws. The alleged violations: that the lobsters were in plastic bags, rather than the required cardboard boxes; that some of the lobsters were smaller than 5 ½ inches in length; and that the harvesting of egg-bearing lobsters was prohibited. Schoenwetter's lawyers, however, turned up evidence from Honduran officials that showed the egg-bearing provision pertained to turtles, not lobsters. The Attorney General of Honduras even sided with Schoenwetter by filing a friend of the court brief, noting that the regulations had been declared void. Schoenwetter, who had no previous criminal history, lost in court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review his case. But it came to the attention of the Washington Legal Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, which showcased it as an example of overreaching criminal law. ``Even if the government of Honduras had said the regulations were in effect, is that worth eight years in prison for a guy?'' Schoenwetter said after the hearing. ``I met all kinds of people in prison, in for drugs and this and that, and I think I had more time than most of them.'' ON THE BOOKS Legal experts say there are more than 4,450 federal crimes on the books and as many as 300,000 federal regulations that can be enforced criminally. From 2000 to 2007, Congress created 452 entirely new crimes -- that's more than a crime a week, said Brian Walsh, a senior legal research fellow at The Heritage Foundation who focuses on overcriminalization. ``It used to be a grave statement to say someone was making a `federal case' out of something,'' Walsh said told lawmakers. ``Today, although the penalties are severe and frequently harsh, the underlying conduct punished is often laughable.'' Support for cutting back the tangle of laws and regulations is strong among what Scott calls ``seemingly odd political bedfellows'' -- the conservative Heritage Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, Democrats and traditional law-and-order Republicans who chafe at a plethora of federal regulations, many of which carry prison time. ``We're talking about people's freedom and the way it affects people's faith in their government or lack thereof. We've got to get this cleaned up,'' Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, a former judge and prosecutor, said after Schoenwetter told the panel about the agents who burst into his Pinecrest home early one morning, ``herding my wife, my mother-in-law, and my daughter into the living room in their nightclothes. ``I'm not here to get sympathy,'' Schoenwetter told lawmakers. ``I'm here to make sure other Americans don't have to go through the same destructive ordeal that we've been through.'' A major problem, legal experts and lawmakers say, is that many federal laws are written so vaguely that prosecutors are not required to prove criminal intent to put someone behind bars. Joining Schoenwetter at the witness table: former race car driver Bobby Unser who -- after getting lost in a blizzard -- was prosecuted for entering a national wilderness area on a snowmobile. The charge carried a six-month prison term and a $5,000 fine and because it was considered ``strict liability,'' the government did not have to prove Unser intended to break the law, or that he even knew he broke the law. ``That doesn't seem like American justice to me,'' Unser told lawmakers. ``Why should I, who nearly died in the blizzard, have to show there was no true need for me to enter the wilderness? I didn't even know I was there.'' Lawmakers said they worry that the pursuit of such charges wastes valuable law enforcement time -- and that too many nonviolent offenders take up valuable prison space. Texas Republican Rep. Ted Poe told the committee about a slaughterhouse operator who was investigated for immigration violations, but eventually imprisoned for late payment of checks to his cattle suppliers. `I'm not justifying any of his conduct,'' Poe said. ``But we probably need that space for somebody that's just really an outlaw.'' The Heritage Foundation's Walsh said advocates are developing recommendations to address the problem, including requiring bills that add criminal penalties to be reviewed by the House and Senate Judicial Committees. He said a study found that bills that cleared the committees were ``statistically more likely to have criminal intent requirements'' than those that didn't face such scrutiny. Other changes would be to direct federal courts to give the benefit of the doubt to the defendant -- rather than the prosecution -- when faced with ambiguous criminal laws. Schoenwetter -- who finished with a halfway house and home confinement last August -- wants to put the entire affair behind him, but said he agreed to come forward in hopes of changing the system. ``This case pretty much broke us,'' he said. He said he's struggling to put his life back together for his family, which stuck by him through the ordeal. He wants to find work and in the meantime, is selling brass decor items for the home and office through a website -- www.worldclassbrass.com -- that his son and daughter set up for him. ``We're trying to get by,'' he said.
______________________________________________________________ We get carried away with law and order stuff in this country.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
