Yosemite Park Rangers are cracking down on…well…something:

As they drove through the first dark intersection, neither of them noticed the park ranger’s vehicle. Andre, 58, recalled seeing a stop sign and lightly touching the brakes but not coming to a full stop.

After they were pulled over by the rangers, Andre Vischer said he told them about the bottle of wine he and his wife had shared during their four- hour dinner. Both Vischers were given Breathalyzer tests. His blood alcohol registered .08, the minimum at which a person is considered legally drunk. Hers tested at .06.

Andre Vischer was frisked, handcuffed, read his rights and taken away by two rangers. Another ranger drove the couple’s rental car while Margaret Vischer remained at the side of the road where a male ranger frisked her, handcuffed her and took her to Yosemite’s small jail to spend the night. There she was fingerprinted, photographed, questioned and told to strip, shower and put on an orange jumpsuit.

When she asked why she was being jailed even though her blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit and she was not driving, she said rangers told her they considered her a danger to herself and others. The next day she was released without being charged.

The couple spent Margaret Vischer’s 60th birthday a few days later at the park’s federal courthouse, where Andre Vischer pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and paid a $2,500 fine…

Leah Sesto, an 18-year-old clerk in the park in 2000, said she was dragged out of bed by rangers and arrested on suspicion of being drunk a few hours after friends had escorted her to her room…

“One of the things I see as a pattern is people being arrested for mouthing off to rangers,” said Carrie Leonetti, an assistant federal public defender who represents people arrested in the park. “Time and time again I have clients tell me that they are arrested for asking questions such as, ‘Am I being detained?’”…

Park workers complain they have been charged with public drunkenness simply for drinking a beer on the front steps of employee dormitories or as they walked from their rooms to nearby bathrooms. One young woman was stopped after leaving a party in July and charged with “internal possession of alcohol, ” a reference to the contents of her stomach.

“Internal possession of alcohol?”

This entry was posted on Monday, December 27th, 2004 at 10:18 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.