Advocating Pro Se Representation
One of the main reasons the government, state or federal, wins so many cases, especially against individuals and small businesses, is they will continue to fight until the opposing side has no more funds to continue on. The smaller the party, the less resources it typically has available to allocate in a fight against the government, generally speaking. It's virtually a "David & Goliath" scenario, whether a person has an attorney or not. Unfortunately, state and federal staff are well aware of the protection they get from the legal departments at their respective employers when they evade ethics, and sometimes even the law, by acting outside of the regulations and laws they are expected and sworn to uphold.
Such is the case with the NYSDEC.
Specifically, the Special Licenses Unit ("SLU" or "division") of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ("NYSDEC" or "department"), headed by Joe Therrien, is a division distrusted by the public, especially by the people it licenses and unlicenses. In the days waiting for my license authorization back in 2011, I remember specifically hearing horror stories with such detail that it was almost impossible to comprehend. To say the least, after obtaining my first license from the department, I hesitantly advanced forward in practicing the tasks the license authorized. However, it would be several years later when I would witness and personally experience the unethical actions of a department hell-bent on controlling every aspect of land use, environmental enjoyment and exotic animal possession of the hard-working, private residents of New York State. This obsession would lend itself to the ad-hoc making up of rules, regulations and laws which are shockingly being enforced in our courts, without any legal basis whatsoever. I would also uncover such tactics as intense secrecy, even concerning information a person has the right to know, such as the status of his or her license. Other tactics involve pitting licensees off against another licensee and the theft of exotic animals clearly owned by private individuals and gifting them to "sanctuaries" run by women with whom the law enforcement officers are especially friendly. In addition, there are a host of other unethical ways used to impose the belief system of the NYSDEC and some licensees that are just that - beliefs. Not laws. Not rules. Not regulations, Not even protocols. Just beliefs! Such actions are clearly violations of the victims' constitutional rights and should be brought to the attention of a governing authority who is willing to objectively launch an inquest into the activities and actions of the NYSDEC-SLU and impose the sanctions needed in order to remedy the division responsible for so much hostility and discord among people of the public, whether they are licensed or not.
The latter may be a very tall order in the state of New York State - a state regarded by public integrity specialists as "the most corrupt" and "the least free" out of all of the states in our nation today. No longer can New Yorkers regard their state as "progressive" or advancing in ways and ideas far ahead of all other states. We don't have the best educational system anymore and in fact, education is aggressively quashed by state departments like the NYSDEC in the most Stalinist ways. Despite it being the right of every New Yorker, learning about our environment and the wildlife which inhabits it is afforded to only a few by the NYSDEC-SLU licensees, also referred to as "helpers" (or "gullibles") throughout this website. These women sustain close friendships and preference by the division and environmental conservation officers. Helpers possess the main secret criteria imposed by the environmental authorities, which is - a matching personal belief system with the Mr. Therrien, his division and the officers and a willingness to "help" the officers gathering "evidence" against exotic animal owners in turn for the exotic animals themselves, often in the absence of a legitimate and mandatory investigation. This is yet another egregious violation of the rights of exotic animal owners; especially since much of the "evidence" is contrived and rests in actions such as character assassination and major reputation damage of small businesses operating within the industry of exotic animal education and sales. Such is the case with Region 8 Lieutenant William Powell in my case where he attempted to have me prosecuted for having collars on six coyotes I was rehabilitating. By sending around the falsehoods that I starve my animals and was breeding wild coyotes and selling their pups, taming them as pets instead of rehabilitating them, he intended to accomplish what true evidence would not - convicting an innocent person who was given a license which authorized everything she was doing within her facility.
As more and more time passes, I continue to learn of other things said and done against me and, of course, without my knowledge, that are unethical and sometimes even illegal by Powell and his female "helpers". Why are people like Powell allowed to not only keep their jobs while betraying the public trust, but also aren't even reprimanded when behaving in such inappropriate ways? The arrogance of such department staff obviously rests in the belief that they have the authority to take away rights granted to the populace which they never gave them in the first place. Clearly, officers like him have forgotten from whom they get their paychecks.
The main aspects of a pro se case against the NYSDEC that an individual or small business must address and overcome are:
- Affordability of lengthy case work and/or litigation (e.g. court fees, possible travel, etc.)
- Knowledge of the legal system and your specific court's culture, especially processes and procedures
- Knowledge of the environmental law surrounding and interwoven throughout your particular case
- Knowledge of laws that touch upon aspects of your particular case, such as municipal, business, common law, federal, etc.
- Time for learning all of the above from a plethora of resources - video, audio, reading, etc.
- Knowledge of basic legal research and how to use the local law library and resources such as Westlaw
- How to find and use system resources to combat misconduct in the judiciary and possibly law enforcement
- A legal mentor (attorney or service such as beyourownlawyer.org)
- Courage, persistence, and perseverance
That right can not be burdened or eroded by blocking, or making excessively difficult, access to the judicial system, and thus (hopefully) justice.