Update, September 2000

Efforts to work with the Sheriff's office are progressing. Recently elected County Supervisor Al Matano received this response from the Sheriff's office. Clearly this is a very positive effort.

• Letter , Sheriff Gary Hamblin to Al Matanao .

The Dane County Sheriff's Department (DCSD) has been building a reputation lately of being anti-cyclist. They've done this by establishing a pattern of both trivializing motorist offenses against cyclists and relentlessly pursuing or exagerating motorist claims against cyclists. It's a sad and frightening state of affairs that the Bicycle Tranportation Alliance of Dane County (BTA) is working to correct:

• Publicizing those offenses is one step in that process, a step that this page will help serve.
• Collecting additional information is another.
• The establishment of a legal defense fund to help wronged cyclists defend themselves is a third.
• Opening a dialog with the DCSD is a fourth BTA initiative. We received a response to our letter of December 17, 1997 on May 22, 1998.

Ivar Moi

On June 18, 1997, Ivar Moi was run off County N by a motorist in a SUV. He followed the motorist to his nearby driveway, where, all agree, a physical conflict followed that resulted in assault charges being filed against Moi. The incident was reported in The Capitol Times (TCT), where questions were raised about who the victim was in this matter. BTA Action Coordinator Mark Shahan has talked with Moi, who reported that the deputy at the scene treated him with condescension and ignored evidence that cast doubt upon the motorist's version of the story, suggesting that the purported victim was instead the assailant. Despite this evidence, the Dane County District Attorney's Office (DCDA) seemed intent upon pursuing misdemeanor assault charges against Moi, who has an otherwise clean record. The case was resolved in late 1997 when Moi pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

Resources:

• Mark Shahan's original posting to the bikies mailing list, which includes the text of the TCT article that brought the plight of Mr. Moi to the attention of the cycling community. ( June, 1997)
• Mr. Moi is being represented by Attorney J. Long. Read this letter from the attorney to Dane County Assistant District Attorney M. Finley for a well-written exposition of the view that the Mr. Moi has been falsely accused.
• A bikies post in which Mark Shahan updates us on the progress in the Moi case and encourages us to write to Mr. Moi with our letters of support. (September, 1997)

Pamela and Michael Barrett

Pamela and Michael Barrett were assaulted on September 7, 1996, in Blue Mounds township by a motorist. In this instance, there were a number of witnesses to the encounter, which fortunately did not result in injuries, despite the fact that the motorist made a concerted effort to strike them with his vehicle; having failed, he circled back for an apparent second try but was deterred by the presence of multiple witnesses with, one of whom was equipped a cellular phone. The motorist, who has related priors, was charged with disorderly conduct and fined $100, whereas a more serious charge was clearly merited, a failure of the DCDA office.

Resources:

• The police report filed by DCSD sheriff's deputy Kratochwill, who responded to the call, from the November, 1996 edition of Spoke 'n' Word, newsletter of the BTA.
• A letter from Michael and Pamela Barrett to the DCSD, copied to the DCDA office, demanding an explanation for the trivialization of the crimes committed against him and his wife.
• A letter from DCDA C. W. Foust in which, to his credit, he apologizes to the Barretts for the manner in which the case was mishandled by his office.

Other Unfortunates

• A bikies post in which Kent Wenger disabuses the notion of another reader that simply calling the DCSD with the license number of the offending motorist would lead to any action; he illustrates this point with an anecdote of his own-- a case in which, unlike Mr. Moi, he had a witness-- and was blown off the DCSD deputy. The irony of this case is that the witness was his wife, dismissed by the deputy as not being credible; in the case of Mr. Moi, the motorist's wife is serving as what's viewed as a perfectly acceptable witness. ( June, 1997)
• A bikies post in which the story of another cyclist who called the Mt. Horeb police after an encounter with the same psychopath as in the Barrett case is related. In that case, the cyclist was advised not to pursue legal action. (June, 1997)
• A bikies post in which a rider and his daughter, forced off the road repeatedly by the same truck, report that they were unable to convince the DCSD to lift a finger, despite providing a license number and making repeated phone calls. ( September, 1997)
• A bikies post about a DCSD deputy unsafely assaulting a cyclist in apparent retaliation for the cyclist's attempt to manuever around an animal. (September, 1997).

Please contact BTA Action Coordinator Mark N. Shahan if you have information on instances in which you feel the DCSD has treated cyclists unjustly. Only by revealing the systematic nature of this problem can we hope to bring it to an end.

The BTA has established a legal defense fund to help cyclist victims of unfair legal practices-- such as I. Moi-- survive the process of defending themselves in the courts, when that becomes necessary. You can help by

• Contacting BTA Action Coordinator Mark N. Shahan with your pledge of contributions.
• Using the box on your BTA membership renewal form to make contributions to the fund, as over a dozen members already have.

BTA Bicyclist Defense Fund
P.O. Box 641
Madison WI 53701-0641

Resources

• The bikies post in which the fund is announced and started rolling.
• BTA's Dec. 17, 1997 letter to Dane County Sheriff Hamblin

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