Point Reyes Light - November 30, 2000

Bolinas woman says park ranger got too rough

By Gregory Foley

With tensions already running high between the National Park Service and some of its neighbors, a Bolinas woman has been charged with assaulting a park ranger in an October incident in which she says she herself was assaulted and intimidated while walking her dog in a local pasture.

Pat Gonzalez, 51, a retired acupuncturist and 30-year town resident, on Nov. 13 pled not guilty to misdemeanor charges of battery on an officer and resisting arrest. The charges were filed by the Marin district attorney’s office after the case was referred to them by Park Service officials following ranger Mark Adolphson’s attempted arrest of Gonzalez. She is scheduled to appear next in court on Friday, Dec. 8, when the case will either be settled or set for trial.

This week Gonzalez adamantly denied the charges and questioned the Park Service’s apparent disregard of a formal complaint she filed with Assistant Supt. Frank Dean the week after the incident.

Crossing the line

"I did not batter anyone, and I did not resist arrest," Gonzalez insisted Tuesday. "I’m shocked and I’m very disappointed. It’s a commonplace thing in West Marin to have young officers that may sometimes cross the line. But it’s worse that this young man’s supervisors substantiated his argument."

Greg Jones, a deputy DA supervising the prosecution, said that Gonzalez faces a maximum penalty of a $2,000 fine and one year in county jail. Jones declined to comment on the specifics of the charges against Gonzalez, noting only that charges filed by federal park officers are handled in the same manner as those from county or state law enforcement agents.

"They make a determination as to whether a crime has been committed and then refer it to us," he said. "We review the police report and then decide whether to file charges and what they will be."

The incident leading to the charges began at approximately 4:30 p.m. Oct. 20, when Gonzalez was walking her dog Ebro, a 167-pound Great Pyrenees, in a cow pasture belonging to the Park Service off Mesa Road north of Bolinas.

Back surgery

Gonzalez explained that she walked her dog there daily until this summer, when she was housebound for a while following back surgery to remove a calcium deposit around her spinal column.

"It was part of my daily life and I was just starting to get out again," she said, "I was about 150 yards into the field, when I heard a noise back where my car was parked. I turned around and I saw a ranger truck parked there, but I kept going because it never occurred to me that there was a problem. There was a wind coming off the ocean, and suddenly over the noise I heard something right behind me and there was this ranger truck bearing down on me. I felt like I was going to be run over."

Gonzalez quickly hooked her dog to a leash, she said. Then ranger Adolphson – listed in court paperwork as being "24 to 29" years old – began aggressively reprimanding her about being in violation of federal law, to which she answered that she was a longtime resident who had frequented the area for many years.

"I was frightened and I told him that I intended to speak to his supervisor. He then asked me for my name and address and phone number and told me not to move," she explained. "But after what seemed like 10 minutes of waiting I went to the truck and told him that I was injured and my back was really hurting and I needed to move on...

Grabbed both arms

"He immediately jumped out and started blocking me and said I couldn’t move. When he reached his hands towards me I screamed for him not to touch me, but he grabbed me by both arms, let go for a second, and then he grabbed me again."

Frightened by the contact, Gonzalez said that out of "reflex" she swatted one of the ranger’s hands away from her torso, and he promptly stated that she was "under arrest for assaulting an officer."

She said she told Adolphson he was overreacting and explained to him that she was going to walk back towards a tree in the field and then to her vehicle, where he could easily catch up to her if necessary.

"I started back towards my car and he got into his truck and started following me very closely. I was really afraid and my dog was getting upset, so I kept going back to my car screaming and crying the whole way... I knew there was a woman there who had witnessed the whole thing... When I got there, there were two sheriff’s vehicles and two deputies waiting by my car, and then the ranger pulled in and blocked it in."

30 minutes in car

After being forced to sit in her car for roughly 30 minutes under the three officers’ supervision, Gonzalez said that ranger Gus Conde arrived, followed by her husband, George Gonzalez, who had been told of the incident by another resident who had witnessed the scene from Mesa Road.

She said that the two park rangers then tried to lock handcuffs over her wrists, with each holding one of her arms. "They tried to force my hands behind my back, and I just went limp because of the awful pain," she said. "I was very freaked out and scared."

Only after Gonzalez’ husband and the female witness began pleading with the rangers did they stop the arrest, Gonzalez said. Although ranger Conde acted "sympathetic," she said, she was eventually issued a citation for misdemeanor assault on an officer and a $50 ticket for walking the dog without a leash – which she later paid without contest.

Three days later, after her husband went to complain about the incident to Asst. Supt. Dean at the park’s Bear Valley headquarters, Gonzalez said she promptly followed up on Dean’s request to file a formal complaint with his office. "My feeling was that I had been violated," she said. "I never thought I’d be charged with anything. But after Frank Dean called and said that the two accounts of the incident conflicted, I immediately called a lawyer."

Witness not interviewed

Gonzalez asserts that her formal complaint to the Park Service has been ignored and that she was never interviewed about the event before the decision to press charges was made. While an audio tape of the majority of the incident has been admitted as part of the evidence against her, she said, the female witness was not interviewed by investigators.

Mary Stearns, a San Rafael attorney representing Gonzalez, said Wednesday she believes the incident would not have occurred had a more experienced and mature ranger than Adolphson confronted Gonzalez. "I would hope that this case would be settled with a dismissal and we could let bygones be bygones," she said.

Neither National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher or Asst. Supt. Dean could be reached for comment this week. John Dell’Osso, the Park’s chief of Interpretation, last week said he could confirm only that the case had been referred to the district attorney.

Rancho Baulines flap

The arrest and subsequent charges come amid tension between the National Park Service and Bolinas residents over a proposed plan to develop Rancho Baulines – a 1,400-acre tenant ranch at the gateway to the town – into an environmental education center and office headquarters for the non-profit Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

Gonzalez said she believes that the federal agency has lost touch with the Bolinas community. "Lately, there has been a ‘we don’t know them’ and ‘they don’t know us’ type of thing going on."

As to whether she will file a lawsuit against the Park Service, Gonzalez said she is still undecided. Although she was not seriously injured in the incident, she said that she has experienced some additional pain resulting from picking up her dog to put him in her car and out of danger.

"I’ve been in some pain for the last several weeks. It’s been more a slowing down of the recovery process. And I’m afraid to go for a walk," she said. "I was scared to death and mistreated, and now I have to go to court. It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars to defend myself in this case."

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