Thread: Missouri Couple Sentenced for Illegal Ginseng Operation

Missouri Couple Sentenced for Illegal Ginseng Operation

A southwest Missouri couple who illegally bought ginseng from Arkansas has been sentenced to a year of probation.

Aug. 7, 2018, at 4:08 p.m.







SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri couple who illegally bought ginseng from Arkansas has been sentenced to a year of probation.
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The Springfield News-Leader reports 77-year-old Kermit Schofield and his wife, 73-year-old Sandy Schofield were sentenced Tuesday in a courtroom packed with supporters from their hometown.

The couple farms and sells herbs in Theodosia, a town of about 250 people near the Missouri-Arkansas border.

Federal prosecutors say that between June 2013 and August 2015 the Schofields illegally bought more than 100 pounds of ginseng in Arkansas. Prosecutors say the couple bought the ginseng outside the permitted time frame for purchasing ginseng in Missouri, and they knew it was illegal transport ginseng out of Arkansas without a state certification.

As part of the sentence, the Schofields agreed to pay $65,000 in restitution and a $5,000 fine.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...=undefined-rec

Mercy sakes don't buy ginseng out of season, or transport from Arkansas to Missouri.

That's $70,000.00 worse than an illegal invader crossing the border 15 times, and bringing in a ton of cocaine.

Our world is upside-down!

Bird feathers--illegal---and Hillary Clinton


"very nice thank-you note" Peg Bargon got from
Hillary Rodham Clinton
BY RAYMOND R. COFFEY
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
JULY 18, 1995

It was a "very nice thank-you note" Peg Bargon got
from Hillary Rodham Clinton for the "dream
catcher" gift she made specially for the first lady.
And she "took it as a great honor", says Bargon's
attorney, J. Steven Beckett.


But the next thing Bargon, of Down state
Monticello, got was a visit from a posse of U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service agents armed with a search
warrant. Now Bargon finds herself being leaned on
to cop a plea on federal charges related to her gift --
or go to jail. And I find myself wondering just how
silly federal agencies can get, and if our government
might not be running a bigger deficit on common
sense than it is on our dollars.


Bargon, a middle-age wife and mother who works at
the nearby University of Illinois small animal
veterinary clinic, is into arts and crafts, specifically
dream catchers, an American Indian artifact made of
beads, stones, and feathers attached to a hoop.


So, when Clinton came to the U. of I. for a 1994
commencement address, a local Democratic leader,
Elmer Purcell, suggested that one of Bargon's dream
catchers be presented as a gift to the president's wife.


A local newspaper ran a story about this and, as
Bargon told me on the phone Monday, her "life has
been turned upside down ever since". It seems the
newspaper story caught the eye of the Fish &
Wildlife people, who noted that Clinton's dream
catcher included a bald eagle feather, possession of
which is illegal. So they started a sting operation
against Bargon, with two undercover agents posing
as potential customers trying to buy one of her
dream catchers from a local arts and crafts mall
where they sell for about $14. Next, no fewer than
six agents turned up on a raid at the mall and the
homes of Bargon and Purcell, who has since died.


Bargon gets feathers for her artwork from hunters,
friends, even from road kill. She uses turkey
feathers, pheasant feathers, almost any feather that
comes her way. She picked up the eagle feather
from the ground at a zoo. Obviously she does not
go around shooting or capturing eagles. Still, the
feather was illegal. So was the blue jay feather she
had used on another dream catcher. So were any
feathers she used from any migratory bird. "Who
doesn't walk through the woods and pick up a
feather and bring it home?" Bargon asks. She's read
her son's Boy Scout manual and "never found a
word about picking up feathers". But, she says, she
"didn't want any trouble". So from the very
beginning she "cooperated completely" with the
federal feather chasers.


The case is now in the hands of the U.S. attorney in
Champaign, and the maximum penalty for
possession of the eagle feather -- and possession with
intent to sell it -- could run up to a year in prison and
a $100,000 fine.


At first, Bargon says, officials said they would let her
off with a fine "consistent with what I could afford"
if she would plead guilty to one misdemeanor
charge. But, then last Spring, they got tough. Now,
she says, they want her to plead guilty to three
counts, one involving a blue jay feather, which could
mean a fine between $2,000 and $20,000 and six
months "home confinement".


Attorney Beckett says he has "every reason to
believe" formal charges will be filed next month and
that Bargon "is scared to death". The very idea of
pleading guilty to federal criminal changes "concerns
me greatly", Bargon told me. "I've never been in
trouble. This (her interest in dream catchers) was
something innocent". Logically, Beckett notes, if
possession alone is the crime, it would make as much
sense to prosecute Clinton as it does to press the case
against Bargon. But, the case has been dragging on
for more than a year now and, says Beckett, "It's
kind of emblematic, isn't it, of what's going on"
generally with regard to encroaching federal
intrusiveness.


Yes, it is. It is also almost dumbfoundingly silly.





10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Bird feathers--illegal---and Hillary Clinton


"very nice thank-you note" Peg Bargon got from
Hillary Rodham Clinton
BY RAYMOND R. COFFEY
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
JULY 18, 1995

It was a "very nice thank-you note" Peg Bargon got
from Hillary Rodham Clinton for the "dream
catcher" gift she made specially for the first lady.
And she "took it as a great honor", says Bargon's
attorney, J. Steven Beckett.


But the next thing Bargon, of Down state
Monticello, got was a visit from a posse of U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service agents armed with a search
warrant. Now Bargon finds herself being leaned on
to cop a plea on federal charges related to her gift --
or go to jail. And I find myself wondering just how
silly federal agencies can get, and if our government
might not be running a bigger deficit on common
sense than it is on our dollars.


Bargon, a middle-age wife and mother who works at
the nearby University of Illinois small animal
veterinary clinic, is into arts and crafts, specifically
dream catchers, an American Indian artifact made of
beads, stones, and feathers attached to a hoop.


So, when Clinton came to the U. of I. for a 1994
commencement address, a local Democratic leader,
Elmer Purcell, suggested that one of Bargon's dream
catchers be presented as a gift to the president's wife.


A local newspaper ran a story about this and, as
Bargon told me on the phone Monday, her "life has
been turned upside down ever since". It seems the
newspaper story caught the eye of the Fish &
Wildlife people, who noted that Clinton's dream
catcher included a bald eagle feather, possession of
which is illegal. So they started a sting operation
against Bargon, with two undercover agents posing
as potential customers trying to buy one of her
dream catchers from a local arts and crafts mall
where they sell for about $14. Next, no fewer than
six agents turned up on a raid at the mall and the
homes of Bargon and Purcell, who has since died.


Bargon gets feathers for her artwork from hunters,
friends, even from road kill. She uses turkey
feathers, pheasant feathers, almost any feather that
comes her way. She picked up the eagle feather
from the ground at a zoo. Obviously she does not
go around shooting or capturing eagles. Still, the
feather was illegal. So was the blue jay feather she
had used on another dream catcher. So were any
feathers she used from any migratory bird. "Who
doesn't walk through the woods and pick up a
feather and bring it home?" Bargon asks. She's read
her son's Boy Scout manual and "never found a
word about picking up feathers". But, she says, she
"didn't want any trouble". So from the very
beginning she "cooperated completely" with the
federal feather chasers.


The case is now in the hands of the U.S. attorney in
Champaign, and the maximum penalty for
possession of the eagle feather -- and possession with
intent to sell it -- could run up to a year in prison and
a $100,000 fine.


At first, Bargon says, officials said they would let her
off with a fine "consistent with what I could afford"
if she would plead guilty to one misdemeanor
charge. But, then last Spring, they got tough. Now,
she says, they want her to plead guilty to three
counts, one involving a blue jay feather, which could
mean a fine between $2,000 and $20,000 and six
months "home confinement".


Attorney Beckett says he has "every reason to
believe" formal charges will be filed next month and
that Bargon "is scared to death". The very idea of
pleading guilty to federal criminal changes "concerns
me greatly", Bargon told me. "I've never been in
trouble. This (her interest in dream catchers) was
something innocent". Logically, Beckett notes, if
possession alone is the crime, it would make as much
sense to prosecute Clinton as it does to press the case
against Bargon. But, the case has been dragging on
for more than a year now and, says Beckett, "It's
kind of emblematic, isn't it, of what's going on"
generally with regard to encroaching federal
intrusiveness.


Yes, it is. It is also almost dumbfoundingly silly.





10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Do you have a link to the story. Thank you.

Originally Posted by MW

Do you have a link to the story. Thank you.

I am having trouble back tracking and finding that link, but here is another story from Chicago Tribune with link.

Woman Seeks Pardon In Gift To First Lady


October 27, 2000|By Julie Deardorff, Tribune Staff Writer.



MONTICELLO, Ill. — In one fell swoop, Peg Bargon turned from an aspiring organic herb farmer into a convicted criminal five years ago, all because she made a feather-adorned present for Hillary Rodham Clinton.


Now Bargon, whose life drastically changed after her arrest and prosecution for violating wildlife protection laws, thinks the least Hillary's husband can do is formally forgive her.






Inside her quaint two-story farmhouse in rolling Piatt County, Bargon works tirelessly on the lengthy application for what she believes will give her personal redemption: a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton before he leaves office.


Reliving the events leading up to her arrest is agonizing, but Bargon, who will apply for clemency Thursday, the fifth anniversary of her prosecution, says a pardon is the only way she can put the surreal event behind her.


"I'm just trying to get my life back," said Bargon, 44, a mother of two boys whose license plates read "HERBS." "Whatever debt I owed, I feel I've paid."


Presidential pardons though, while given to one desperate turkey a year on Thanksgiving, are relatively rare. During Clinton's two terms, he has granted 185 of 1,820 petition requests, including seven last week for crimes ranging from wire fraud and embezzlement to transporting a stolen vehicle across state lines. In 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997, no one received a pardon or sentence commutation from Clinton. He has denied 655 requests.


This year, both junk-bond king Michael Milken and supporters for the late Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner are seeking pardons to clear their names. But the majority of petitioners are not high-profile names. Many Americans who seek presidential clemency are like Bargon, who wants to be able to check "no" when asked if convicted of a crime.


"In our society, you really carry a target on your back if you have a conviction," said Chicago's Paul Fauteck, a clinical psychologist who was pardoned in 1992 for smuggling his Mexican wife into the United States in 1955. "The pardon doesn't completely remove that, but it certainly takes away some of the stigma. You can get a great deal of pride and personal satisfaction."


Bargon's woes began in 1994 when she was asked by a friend, Elmer Purcell, who has since died of cancer, to make a dream catcher for Hillary Clinton similar to the ones she had made for her sons. In Native-American lore, dream catchers--decorative hoops of stones, beads and feathers with a weblike lattice--are said to snare bad dreams while allowing good dreams to flow through.


Bargon hoped to cash in on the publicity, and soon First Lady Dream Catchers were available for $60 at a local craft shop. Eagle-eyed federal agents spotted the news of Clinton's gift in a local newspaper and launched an undercover probe that included recorded telephone calls, search warrants, undercover shopping trips and even autopsies of birds whose parts were used by Bargon.


In Bargon's home, officials found several feathers from migratory birds that are protected under federal law, including owls, a sandhill crane, a swan, a blue jay and a robin.


The tear-shaped dream catcher given to Clinton included feathers from a bald eagle, a goshawk, a barred owl and a snowy owl.




When the yearlong federal investigation finally ended, Bargon tearfully pleaded guilty to misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act and the Bald Eagle Protection Act, which both protect wildlife.


Though two charges were dropped and she avoided jail time, she left her job in public broadcasting, abandoned her dream of starting an herb business, spent over $10,000 on legal fees, paid a $1,200 fine, and struggled with the emotional and psychological effects of her crime.


She says the event strained her relationships with her husband and her children, and friends say she lost confidence, self-esteem and weight. For a long time, Bargon felt the presence of the federal officials who searched her home and snatched everything related to the crime, including a thank you letter from the first lady hanging on the refrigerator.


"I love the beautiful legend of the dream catcher and I am pleased to have this symbol of Native American wisdom, love and creativity in the White House to commemorate my delightful visit to East Central Illinois," the letter said.


"For a long time, something was very wrong inside our home," said Bargon, a Monticello native who is well-known in the community and wrapped Hillary Clinton's gift in the local high school's colors, purple and gold. "Fear and confusion stayed a long time, and nothing made any sense. I'm beginning to lose that now by going through the process of filling out the form."


Bargon's supporters indignantly argue the government ought to have better things to do than prosecute a woman for selling dream catchers and should instead target poachers and smugglers.


"Everybody thought it was a joke and it would blow over, that it was one of those funny things that happen," said Norma Adams, who recently closed Sisters Etc. Crafters Mall, the store where Bargon sold some products. "People were shocked it went so far."


The federal government says it is not targeting those who merely pick up feathers but those who willfully misuse the protected animal parts. "Wildlife must be protected from commercial exploitation," said U.S. Atty. Frances Hulin. "Migratory bird populations are continuing to dwindle, and commercial use of their feathers and parts, particularly with the international popularity of the United States' western motifs and pseudo-Native American handicrafts, is a continuing problem," said Hulin.






Bargon, who hadn't had so much as a moving violation prior to her arrest, wasn't accused of harming the birds and maintains she plucked feathers from roadkill and used parts from birds shot by friends who were hunters. One of her sons picked up the eagle feather used in Hillary Clinton's piece at a South Carolina zoo and put it in his craft box.


Her ignorance of the consequences, however, was clear. In a recorded phone conversation with an agent posing as a customer, Bargon said: "I do have a roadkill owl, about half a wing. So I could put owl feathers in it. . . . You know it's one of those things that people say, `Oh you're not supposed to have owls.' Man, it was dead on the road and there were two wings and some feet . . . if that's a problem, get over it."


"Trust me, I knew nothing, nothing about wildlife protection laws," said Bargon. "I wish I had, and thank God they stopped me when they did."


And while Bargon says she has learned her lesson the hard way, she fears others haven't learned a thing. She recently saw a bird claw and feathers hanging in the cab of a pickup truck at a gas station. Bargon said the man grinned and told her it was a crow that had been killed with dynamite. "I said, `You can't have crows!"' Bargon recalled. "Didn't you learn anything?"


Later, her chiropractor talked about picking parts out of roadkill, and she went through her same routine.


"Did they not get anything out of what happened to me?" asked Bargon, who has recovered enough to have a dream catcher--made of chicken feathers--in her home. "It's really no joke. I should know. I'm still waiting for the punch line."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-10-27/news/0010270199_1_pardon-convicted-hillary-rodham-clinton