Wild life investigator today is March 24th, 2021.
It's 2:21 PM.
Right now I be attempting to serve summons on the Jeremy Bennett.
Business owner Jeremy Bennett made a simple request to
an Ohio wildlife officer.
Please come back when we're open.
The government later responded by threatening to throw him in jail, but
can the government really demand entry to your business whenever it wants?
So I'm Jeremy Bennett and, uh, I am a full-time taxidermist
and full-time dear processor.
Taxidermy is, is very much a craftsmanship trade.
Uh, there is a lot of hands-on, there's a lot of, um, creativity to it.
Our job is to recreate that memory of the hunt, whether it be, um, memory
of someone being out there with their grandfather, uh, on a river
bank catching fish with their dad.
The deer processing, we are cutting the meat, turning that into sausages,
baloneys, steaks, roasts, different cuts.
With the help of family and friends.
Jeremy built his studio just steps from his home in rural Ohio.
The only thing the state requires is for Jeremy to keep records.
And for 15 years, he had no trouble.
But about 10 years ago, um, we got a new officer, uh, for our area and,
and things got progressively more tense, things got more intrusive.
The requirements for us and not changed, uh, but, but the way
that they were going about the inspections had definitely changed.
And when we questioned that we were given the statement that everybody
does something illegal, we just have to find out what you did.
There's times where I have my family out here, little kids, and
I don't want just anybody coming in and having access to them, whether
they're law enforcement or not.
I find it very intrusive to have, uh, the division come in, take as
long as they want, do whatever they want, in your non-public space.
During peak hunting season, Jeremy is busy processing deer and keeps
his taxidermy studio closed.
The Wednesday after the firearm season ended, uh, the officer
called and, uh, asked if he could come by and do an inspection.
And, uh, he saw our records.
Our records were in good order before he left.
He asked, he said, come while we're here.
Can we go to your taxidermy studio and take a look while we're here?
And I said, you can't, the taxidermy studio is closed.
So I told him we don't do any taxidermy work between October and January that
we're focusing on deer processing.
He'd be welcome to come back and go in the taxidermy studio when we open.
The officer, without saying that Jeremy was doing anything wrong, left and
demanded that he be criminally prosecuted.
Mr.
Bennett?
That's me!
I'm an investigator with the Ohio division of wildlife.
Ok, How are ya?
The uh prosecutor's office, it approved a couple of charges for
not allowing that inspection.
If I had any inkling that I was doing anything illegal in
saying that you couldn't come upstairs, we'd have come upstairs.
I had no clue that I was violating anything.
He has the authority, by the way, the laws are, to in essence look anywhere he wants.
But that's not true.
People don't lose their fourth amendment rights when they open a business,
which means that wildlife officers have to get a warrant before barging
into Jeremy's shop without his consent.
After all, private property isn't really yours if government officials can snoop
around whenever and wherever they want.
The Institute forJustice is representing Jeremy to ensure that the state of
Ohio doesn't violate his or anyone else's fourth amendment rights.
I don't feel that just simply because you open a business that you
automatically give up your fourth amendment constitutional right to privacy.