REGIONAL- Nearly six months after an Ash River houseboat operator was allegedly tased during a June 25 encounter with Voyageurs National Park enforcement officers, five charges stemming from the incident have been filed by the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The charges against Justin Ebel, owner of Ebel’s Voyageurs Houseboats, were filed on Dec. 6 and Dec. 8, and include assaulting or resisting an officer, disorderly conduct, failure to obey a lawful order, interfering with a government employee or agent, and improper display of vessel registration.
All of the charges are considered to be “petty offenses” according to the case docket on PACER, a federal court records internet site. In federal regulations, the highest-level petty offense is a Class B misdemeanor, followed by Class C misdemeanors and noncriminal infractions.
The Timberjay has learned little about the details of the June 25 encounter and alleged tasing beyond comments made by Ebel’s mother, Katy Ebel, at a public meeting in Crane Lake on July 21.
“I am Justin Ebel’s mother,” she said at the meeting. “He was the person that was tased not once but twice. He was taking a boat off the rocks in the wind, and he was trying to get that boat into Sullivan Bay or back to our base to be checked for any holes in the pontoons. He was stopped and told that they were boarding the boat. He told them that he wanted to do safety first. He wanted his customers back into at least Sullivan Bay if not back at the dock because he checks each and every boat that goes onto a rock for whether or not it has been damaged. This boat had damage.”
The Timberjay has attempted to obtain official statements and/or documentation about the incident from Voyageurs National Park Superintendent Bob DeGross, VNP Visitor and Resource Protection Team Lead Ranger Joshua Wentz, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the National Park Service, all to no avail. Also of note is that while the initial citations issued to Ebel are viewable on PACER, the accompanying probable cause statements that would describe the justification for the charges are blocked from public view.
When contacted by the Timberjay in July, Ebel also declined to comment on the incident due to possible future litigation, and again declined when the newspaper reached out to him on Tuesday.
Ebel’s alleged violations occurred in the midst of broader concerns about Voyageurs National Park enforcement activities expressed by business owners. In four public meetings including the one at Crane Lake, business owners expressed fear that the perception of overzealous law enforcement actions in 2022 versus prior years would turn away many of the park tourists they depend on to make a living.
DeGross responded to those concerns in August with a multi-point action plan to improve operational transparency, improve procedures, and develop stronger and more frequent connections between park staff and the surrounding communities.
NPS discrepancies
Both the denials of VNP staff to answer basic questions about the alleged tasing incident and the failure of NPS to act on Freedom of Information Act requests submitted by the Timberjay on Aug. 4 stand in stark contrast to the agency’s far more transparent response to the tasing of a park visitor in New Mexico on Dec. 27, 2020.
In that situation, a Native American man, Darrell House, and his sister were confronted by an enforcement ranger at Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico for being off the designated trails. House was uncooperative when the ranger asked for his name and identification, and he attempted to walk away. During the encounter, the ranger deployed and fired his taser after giving repeated warnings.
House’s sister recorded video of the incident on a smartphone that he uploaded to his Instagram account that same evening. The next day, after the video had been viewed more than 10,000 times in the first 12 hours it was available, NPS issued a formal statement acknowledging the incident and video and announcing an investigation into the incident.
Two days after the incident, after local print and television media had reported on it, NPS voluntarily chose to release the ranger’s body cam video, along with an expended statement including more details about the encounter.
The Timberjay has not been able to discover why the agency’s practice of immediate transparency by releasing the ranger’s body cam footage and two press statements within 48 hours of the Albuquerque incident was not similarly followed in the VNP incident.
Ebel was scheduled for an initial court appearance before a magistrate judge in Bemidji on Wednesday. The Timberjay will continue to follow the story and report on developments as they become available.