That DWR officer should be dressed up to look like a deer and sent out into the woods and everyone he has ever wronged would be invited to the hunt and handed rifles.
All regulatory agencies, whether state or Federal, have huge problems with employees having/thinking they have absolute power over the common populous, and using it to elevate their ego! They love to push innocent people into a corner, threaten them with legal actions, and hope they try to push back so they can abuse their authority to show their superiority! It's like the "little man" syndrome. Hell, they even do this within ranks, too! Don't ask me how I know....has something to do with 29 years working for a government agency!! Fab Rats did the right thing, they documented everything, and didn't back down! That's the key, and what the government is afraid of...documentation, documentation, documentation!
Not stated in the news report is the fact that the boat had been out of the water for about a year due to falling water levels in the lake. This fact would have been well known to the DWR if they were doing their job and monitoring conditions. The officer even confirmed, when he visited Fab Rats at their workshop, that any mussels on the boat were clearly dead before the boat was moved, yet he issued the citation anyway. This is a total over-reach by a rogue officer who already has a record of irrational, unsafe and inappropriate behavior which is well known in that area. This officer will continue to bring a lot of trouble and grief to the department if he is not terminated.
Nor have they shown the (Actual) hull of the boat which didn’t have live muscles stuck to it like the stock shots they used, never mind the family of mice living in the boat as it was beached for the year. I smell a Rat, not a Fab Rat but a news editor rat.
The infraction was a process crime and was nothing material to the safety of the environment. These agencies can make rules on their own and can be power hungry in the wrong authority.
Or just watched the videos where Paul and Matt has talked about the record low water levels around there. And then watching more videos would have shown that the boat had been out of the water for a LOOOONG time.
@@Plutogalaxy dismissed by DWR after the prosecutor declined filing the charges. What that means is the DWR officer would need more evidence, while the defendant has lengthy video evidence to back up their statements.
Very often cases like this get dropped, because they can open a can of worms not in the state's favor, as the defendant can countersue, which could potentially result in laws getting changed, with more restrictions on the government. By the state not pursuing charges, Fab Rats no longer has a legal avenue to countersue, and the state no longer has a fear of their laws being challenged. The state is free to continue shaking down residents in the same manner.
not the first time this officer has done this, anyone that watches fab rats knows many people in their area have dealt with the same crooked officer. pathetic he still has a job treating many members of the community VERY UNFAIRLY
none of that matters the little dwr @$$hat was just getting them to talk so that they would self incriminate in other words do his job for him....now he has egg on his face and will be a dangerous vengfull pos looking for his next raise and promotion
@@__shifty There's a difference between "back the blue" when the agency is doing the right thing and their people are actually using common sense as it applies to the law. You can "back the blue" and still call out those agencies and officers/deputies that violate their oath, act outside of agency policy and training as well as filing reports that have fictious/embellished information in them. I used to be a LEO and I would see this from time to time from various agencies and personnel.
@twotwentyswift And? They are a law enforcement agency and have authority like state police. Just because they wear brown shirts doesn't mean they should be allowed to act like them!
The boat was under water for 30 years. When the lake levels went down, this boat was on dry land for months! Those things, whatever the hell they are, were DEAD. That place is a desert. The level of the lake was well below where the boat was sitting dry. No offense was committed. And they fixed the boat up and gave it back to the original owners, or were going to until this nonsensical cop responded to some numbnut person who did not like FAB RATSs. A squealer.
nono you got it wrong abc4 is all about propaganda and twisting a story by cherry picking sound bytes abc4 calls it a postive spin to help the dnr win against the evil citizen that fought them and had the money to play their shitty little game in court
A number of pertinent facts were omitted from the news report, this boat had been well above the water line for a considerable time in a very dry environment. For anyone interested it is not a bad idea to watch the entire video series. I am a subscriber to the Fab Rats channel and have been for some time, that does not make me immune from being aware of environmental issues. Possibly the most worrying aspect of this is if they had not got a high profile RU-vid the charges may never have been dropped, though that is not clear at all from your report. Hopefully this can be put to bed now and everyone can get on with what they were doing.
Shameful reporting leaving out key points. How about the fact that the boat was not pulled from the water. The boat had been sitting on dry land for over 30 days. How the DNR Officer going on record that he knew the muscles were dead.
And even a landlubber would scrape the barnacle growth off the bottom and anywhere else it may be. Thanks to obummer and following up with Brandon "Stalin" seems all law enforcement now believe forever guilty no matter and we'll make up rules and laws to make you criminal
I would bet the farm that if Fab Rats didn't make this public and the RU-vid channel didn't have hundreds of thousands of followers the citation would have never been dropped!
@@Plutogalaxyshe said a lot of things. She also didn’t say a lot of things. We’re the Cox informed of the dismissal, or was it a retroactive stroke of the pen backdating the dismissal?
Still doesn’t address the fact that this particular DWR officer is well known for his heavy handed tactics all across that part of Utah. Perhaps as a news station, you should investigate that… Just sayin’
Thats what news is supposed to do, it but didn't. The charges were dropped, the DWR officer has a long history of abusing his power, so why were they brought in the first place and did he get punished when not true? That's the news story, wasted money on false charges. Bet it cost 10 k at least.
Anyone who watched the Fab Rats video knows the boat they rescued had been out of the water for at least a year. Why did the officer suggest they pulled the boat out of the water if the officer watched the video? This charge by the D.W.R. seemed frivilous and I might suggest, personal..
I don't think the DWR was aware of the history the Fab Rats had with this boat and just went off of the officer's word. They should know better after his track record to trust anything he says. At the end of the day though, his frivolous fines bring in money to the DWR, so they've probably looked the other direction more often than not with people who can't afford to challenge these fines.
@@Zorbino88. The DWR officer said in the video talking to Paul that he seen the video so he should have know before he persisted on giving a fine to them. The FabRats entire point on fighting this was to point out that most of Utah was having trouble with this particular officer over stepping his bounds and causing problems with good people. Not just the Cox’s family but others as well.
because the leo your talking about is a liar for profit and an evil little @$$hat that thinks he is smarter than the average citizen,but because he has the power of the state on loan to him he does not care because he knows his little g god will keep him safe and reward him for every bit of evil he does regaursless if its legal or not he knows he is above the law..........because of who he works for...
I don't think the charges being dropped by the prosecuting authority is enough. An apology is in order. Merlin had seen the boat, high and dry, over a year before Paul and crew went to get it. In fact...Paul went to inspect it a good bit of time before they recovered it. This was after getting approvals to remove the wreckage from the lake bed. Crossing state lines is required to even reach an inspection station which, unfortunately, would likely be staffed by overzealous DWR employees with zero understanding of the word 'discretion'. Epic fail on DWR and it still looks like no action towards this officer which has proven deceptive and aggressive on at least two documented incidents. He's not a public servant. He's a leech.
The very same officer who went onto private property and shot a deer in the head trying to kill it. Which that deer had been abandoned by its mother at a very early stage in its life. The family fed and kept the deer alive and it in return stayed around the neighborhood. Not a single report was made of the deer attacking anyone's pets yet the officer said he was there to put the deer down for attacking someone's pet. After he shot the deer the first time he continued around the owners property to try and finish the job and luckily he failed, kind of like his failings at his job. He was punished and removed from that current position but it's clear he needs to be removed from his job. That officer clearly shouldn't be in any job that gives him any other power over law abiding citizens except to ask if the restrooms are empty so he can clean them.
He's such a screw up that this is where he's ended up, demoted to snail cop, and he's STILL causing trouble while trying to flex his authority. This guy needs to go.
the news media lies every time their mouths open and a word salad falls out...no truth or sense come out just a word salad that twists the truth the way they want it go
The cox's removed a boat that has been polluting Lake Powell for 20 years plus. The dwr needs to thank them for doing their job, not harassing them and threatening them. If the dwr doesn't have enough resources or any concern for removing the dozens of sunken boats and trash polluting lake powell , then why wouldn't residents take it upon themselves to clean up the environment? That boat was out of the water on dry land for over a year, are those mussels able to come back to life after years of death? If so why is that not the headline, and why are they not being researched to help humans do the same? This is the same as harassing and prosecuting anyone who picks up trash from any public space. Headline Utah wants all parks polluted and covered in trash, if you pick up trash in Utah you will be prosecuted! This is not a good look for a state that relies so heavily on tourism. The economy and safety, and health of the communities surrounding public areas in utah are not as important as a "years" dead single mussel. I will never visit lake powell it is not safe because of the risk of being prosecuted and the massive and extremely protected pollution all acrosss it's lake bed. No thank you! I will visit the Fab Rats merch shop instead, that is where i will spend my money in utah, where i will only risk getting a good zinnger from Paul's mother.
Lake Powell is in my state of Arizona AND Utah, it is right up on the boarder of Utah and AZ. This ridiculous citation was (As I understand) for taking the boat into Utah (from Utah). I want to say the boat was actually in Utah but they had to drive into AZ then up to Utah so that got the "transporting into" BS charge spurred up. Unfortunately these kind of people who can't help but abuse power are in EVERY agency and profession for that matter. Personally I can not believe that there were near zero efforts to clean and remove ANY garbage from Powell or Mead! WHY NOT people would have volunteered to help if it was organized but NOPE, never know what you might find and we can't let sunshine on the past. BTW huge fan of Fab Rats & Merlins old school garage.
@@maddierosemusic To MY knowledge, no major efforts IE government funded efforts were made to clean up either lake mead or Powell and actually were "stopped" by disallowing the removal of items from Mead and maybe Powell too. I DO NOT have details on that and DO NOT claim to be accurate, hearsay only "National Rec Area" rules is what I understand. Bureaucracy at it's best.
I am not from the area but I am a boater/fisherman. Are these mussels protected or invasive species or some thing. What is the issue with these critters.
@@codyadsit Most likely because they didn't get the info that it was dropped until after the video was published. Also I would keep the video up until i was sure i wouldn't have to sue DWR for their miss deeds.
@@Plutogalaxyit was NOT dismissed before the video. Stop believing everything the media tells you without doing any research….have you watched the yellow submarine videos? Nope, but you'll listen to this broad spout off things that aren’t true….😊
The had been out of water so long that it had mice living in it, so unless there is a new species of mouse that lives and breathes under water none of this should have happened. And on top of that they had contacted the proper authorities to be able to remove the boat from where it was. There is even a video dating back over 6 months showing the boat nowhere near the water line.
They didn't threaten to bring DWR to court they simply said they were fighting the citation instead of just paying it. Which fight a citation is your right in this country.
The boat was not pulled out of the water. In fact because of the extreme drop in the water level it had been on dry land for many months or even years. The agent even admitted he saw the video which clearly shows this information and even mentioned during his interview with Paul Cox that because of that there was no way live mussels could be on the boat. After all that he decided to still issue a citation. Of course when competent people in the department reviewed the information they realized there was no basis for any charges and dropped them. This is not the first time this agent has been involved in a situation using extremely poor decision making on his part causing pain and suffering for citizens of the state. Rather than dancing around the issue and trying to avert blame the agency should admit their mistake and take the necessary steps to make sure the public is no longer subject to harm from this incompetent agent.
Seems like there was no effort by these journalists to tell this story ,paul and Michelle did their due diligence preparing for this ,they should be reporting that they cleaned up the environment and returned a sunken boat to the family that lost it so many years ago
There was no threat an abusive DWR officer charged them in transporting an invasive muscle from Lake Mead, but they were exposed for over a month in the sun and dead, but the officer still charged them knowing this as he watched the Fab Rats videos that even stated the amount of time it took to get all the legal rights to retrieve the boat, and it was his reason to investigate. After being charged by this officer they posted a video that like a speeding ticket they intended to fight the false charges, it has been noted this officer has had several complaints of this behavior and like far to many officers they abuse their authority in false charges to milk money in fines from people who don't choose to defend themselves by the drawn-out court hearings, the new justice system of Guilty until proven Innocent.
Officer wanted nothing but you tube air time and to be seen as a big shot by everyone. He needs to be fire for causing a problem where in didn’t exist .
Not only that the boat had been sitting in the dry for a long time. Even the DNR officer noted the boat had been sitting in the dry for a long time he saw it in the video himself. This is the same DNR officer that shot a deer on somebody’s property over the accusation that the deer head attacked a dog and the deer was basically a family pet. We all respect law-enforcement, but when you got a rogue agent, you gotta tell him to pull it back.
…. Interesting report… the news media seemed to miss the point… that the officer used deceptive tactics and knew there was no violation but issued the citation anyway… also thst the only reason the viol
And some people wonder why the news is no longer trustworthy. This is some of worst reporting I've seen. The edits were very selective, trying to make fab rats look like they were in the wrong. The little clip of the dnr offers asking about the boat being removed from the water and then clipped before they explained the boat was never pulled from the water. It had been sitting on dry land for almost a whole year due to low water levels. Much more of this was deceptive. Very poor journalism.
That DWR officer is a CRIMINAL, and he has done several things that NO ONE should do, and ESPECIALLY a law enforcement officer! The officer should be FIRED and facing charges of official corruption and abuse of power!
As a former state employee (I finally quit due to all the sloth and nepotism) I can assure you that it takes an act of God Himself to fire a state employee-even if caught on film committing a criminal act!
This "news" report failed to mention the amount of time that boat had been out of the water before being transported or the fact that the officer had previous "abuse of power" issues with other people.
@@rfbedell347 Actually, you're the one who "takes it" 🤣🤣🤣 I'm a republican so I know which sex I am without having to figure it out. 😆 Life must be soooooo confusing for you cross dressing freaks.
It's funny this news channel edited out the part where the officer can clearly be heard saying he thought all the muscles were dead when he came to their shop to question them. The boat had been out of the water for more than 30 days, it was not removed from a body of water but a dry lake bed.
Good for you Paul & Michelle!!! You guys did nothing wrong!!! I’m extremely happy you took DWR to court because we all knew you were gonna win against this stupid DWR agent, I hope they fire him asap!!!!
The real issue is the obnoxious, gaslighting, overzealous chump who decided to file against Fab Rats in the first place. Did you notice him asking if Paul Cox knew if there were mussels on the watercraft, WHEN HE PULLED IT OUT OF THE WATER? The boat was never pulled out of the water by anyone. It sank when the lake was still big enough to cover the area where it was found. After the drought caused the lake to recede, it had been on dry land for many months when Paul Cox requested permission to recover it. The DWR agent was attempting to trick him into confessing what was NEVER DONE. The agent is widely known to attempt to create issues where there are none, and should be dismissed from the department, full stop. He gives honest, community and service oriented law enforcement a bad name. I see his future as a men's room attendant...but certainly not a police officer.
I watched the series where Fab Rats was first told about the boat (sitting on the DRY lakebed), scouted it out, then went trough the process to legally retrieve it, clean it, rebuild it and then reunite the original owners with their lost boat. Something that took a number of months and something that even the DWR officer admitted to watching as well. But for whatever reason, that same DWR officer to ignore the evidence within those video, and decided to be a jerk
You missed the whole part about what an Arse the inspecting Officer is. He trespassed, and then shot a deer on private property and Did NOT kill it! Just turned and walked away. That man needs to be fired and prohibited to carry a deadly weapon.
DWR officer got caught screwing up. County prosecutor never should have taken the case. This just proves AGAIN that this DWR officer needs to be permanently decertified and permanently retired.
Fab Rats Michelle, Paul and family are a real credit to their community, bringing positive awareness about the state of Utah where they live and work. By all accounts, the DWR officer involved is exactly the opposite and the state might want to investigate that.
That DWR officer already got busted back to "muscle guy" after he trespassed and shot a deer in someone's yard. Maybe now he'll get busted to toilet cleaner, or just out the door.
That officer was way out of line, the lake had been low for years, that boat had been far above the waterline for over 30 days, it took months of preparation to retrieve it legally. It was also documented before, during and after it was retrieved. The officer saw the videos and decided to persue it further than necessary, not his first time either. Termination would be a reasonable punishment, but I'd suggest demote him and put him behind a desk with no real authority for the rest of his career.
fab rats must still have a case against that officer for his actions and words which are all on camera , claiming they took the boat out of the water etc
The only thing that comes to mind is defamation of character, similar to the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit brought against Trump for him running his mouth about her. Their lawyer could subpoena the field report by the DWR guy, if they don't have already, and then use it as evidence in court.
The guy watched the video's. Saw plainly the boat had NOT been in water for months. Tried to jack them around every chance he got, by twisting his questions around, and still decided to file charges. It was nothing short of a money grab. The officer really needs to find another line of work. Wal Mart greater or something !
I was waiting for this to come out from DWR. The guy is on a power trip at the DWR and need to be let go. He had a great chance to make it a learning thing for everyone that watches the Fab Rat channel and a couple other channel as well. IF the rule is really is you need the boat professional clean if it has the mussel on it they should of said ok let turn this into a education thing. DWR ok the boat been out of water for a year now. You froze them power wash the boat and sanded and re gel the haul so there no chance for them to be alive . So lets make video on what is the right thing to do and how to do it and we can help each other out. Knowing how much Fab Rat is in to hunting fishing and the outdoors I'm sure they would of said lets do it right now we can film it this minute. Instead DWR want to just issue a ticket for something he knew wasn't right.
DNR and law enforcement has been out of control at lake powell for years. It has become a money maker for the state and local governments. Maybe they need to refocus on actually enforcing the laws with some common since. Also maybe the legislature needs to look at these laws to ensure that they are clear and actually accomplish the outcome they are intended to have
Your reporting omitted a number of facts, like the boat was sitting in a dry lake bed for months and the boat was completely cleaned / re-surfaced. It's amazing how comfortable our government and media can be with 50% of the facts.
It's amazing the common high school graduate has more sense than people with a Bachelors of Arts degree. BA holders are more evasive than Quagga and Zebra mussels combine, they must all resorts to sophistry as a profession.
How dare they threaten to defend themselves! Everyone knows that once the government agent decides you've done something wrong you immediately apologize, pay the price, and get in line. 🤦♂️
Fab Rats were working for over a year to get all the permits to remove the boat. So the boat was on dry land for well over a year, before it was removed. All the DNR officer had to do was watch the video to know it was on dry land long before the project started.
He stated at the shop to Paul that he had watched the videos. Micah Evans is the officers name, his name should be mentioned because of his behavior. Let’s quit protecting him.
The real issue is the officer has had many issue about his honesty and his conduct as an officer. DWR is hiding behind unrealistic policy. They are covering to a rouge employee.
He watch the channel he knew it had not been pulled from water ,he knew they had gotten the proper ok from the parks office to remove boat from lake shore too, he watched the channel his own words !
And, they didn't "pull it from the water" per the letter of the law. The boat was on dry land when they first saw it and when they recovered it. Notice how the officer tried to trick them by saying, "...so when you pulled it from the water", knowing full well that that was not the case. There is really no end to the case they could make against this officer and the agency.
This is the same officer that showed up and shot at a family's pet deer striking it in the head but not mortallywounding the creature. That plus this incident shows a pattern of wreckless and rogue behavior that should be addressed by state officials and internal affairs investigations
So someone cut that video from the Fab Rats talking to the DNR guy... I believe he said it was not in the water from where they pulled it out. The DNR guy was trying to get them to say they pulled it out of the water. Hmm... ABC4 Utah... Shame on you.
The boat had been on dry land for over a year or more. This is just another abuse of power. Also these inspection stations are closed 90 percent of the time . I hauled boats a cross country for years . New boats from the factory to dealers and they would harass me every time even knowing these boats had never been in the water and were completely sealed for transport.
@@professornuke7562 that part was hilarious ahaha, cool to see hunter in almost every vid nowadays, sad to see this crooked officer continuing to abuse his power, he should've been fired a longggg time ago
@@thefreshgingerTTV I bet it's a hard position to fill, but he is also expected to justify it to some faceless entity. Or he's just what we in Australia call a **COMMUNITY GUIDELINE STRIKE** and you have to work out whether you are a good **COMMUNITY GUIDELINE STRIKE** or a bad **COMMUNITY GUIDELINE STRIKE** for yourself.
Awesome. Glad they dropped it. I watched the whole series, and there was no reason for any of this unnecessary drama. If anything the agent for the DNR that pursued this made his department look bad by compromising the public's trust in the agency. I do wonder if the cameras weren't on to document every inch of that boats travel, how much worse this could have been for Fab Rat's. I wouldn't doubt they'd try to make an example of them. Sadly the couple probably spent $10,000 to secure a lawyer that never had to do anything. I hope whoever they got, is honest enough to give it all back. Great report.
Paul and Michelle didnt threaten to take DWR to court. The stated that of they had made a decision to go to court to fight the citation (a legal process many people do daily over various citions).
Thank god they had a popular RU-vid channel. If that power hungry “officer” didn’t get under the spotlight, how far was he taking that idiocy? That boat had been on dry land for a year.
Hum-I thought that is what was happening when the situation was issued! It was either to pay a fine and admit guilt or go to court. Sounds like DWR needs to have its house cleaned from the top to the bottom! Local court system decided it was a lose/lose to pursue this “crime”. Not sure about Utah, but in my state if local court system (prosecutor) will not prosecute the state agency is done-can not collect fine if person did not willingly pay the fine and it would never go to court if prosecutor dismisses the case. More abuse in government.
Considering the recent wave of anti-law enforcement reteric you would think lawmen would tread carefully. Instead they seem to be doubling down by oppressing those that would support them.
Fab Rats went through all the red tape with the DWR to be able to get the boat out of the water in the first place if there was any problem with it the game and fish office should have said something about it when they first started and it was out of the water for more than a year all the muscles are dead and they pressure washed it
The fab rats did nothing wrong. They are being harassed by a dwr officer who is know for being an asshole. They will win there case. They attained proper permits and permission from multiple agencies and are awesome people. Don't mess with my rats ❤
That boat had been high and dry for over a year because of the drought. The DWR officer tried to get them to admit to pulling the boat out of the water.
I'm glad the citation was dropped. I think every state needs to reign in their version of DWR. From what I gather FAB RATS did NOTHING wrong. Unless trying to do something good is considered wrong nowadays.
So in other words DWR covered the officers backside and their own. 🙄 The problem here isn't the DWR rules ... its the officer who took the case on. Him and the entire district knew that bost was high and dry out of the water for over a year before FabRats saved it and he still charged them. Smh its all about money and hoow much he could get out of FabRats thats what I think!
Fab rats are 100% the nicest people and dont go out of there way to cause trouble , the boat they moved was out of water for a year and was getting semi restored to be given back to the owners that sunk it years earlier ..
Wow, y’all really made the officer and the district attorney look good. They had no evidence to charge the people, but they did it anyways until public pressure was put on them. Imagine the people who don’t have a RU-vid channel.
Interestingly enough the DWR officer agreed in the video that they were not violation, but then recommended to the attorney's office to pursue charges, that is the story....
I wonder if abc4 utah reads these comments? I hope they do. They also need to do a better job of getting the facts gathered. Fabrats removed a boat from a dry lake bed. The boat hadn't been in the water for almost a year. They Also got permission from various state agencies before touching the boat. It was all well documented by Fabrats in their videos. This dwr guy has a history of abusing his authority. He needs to not be involved with the public anymore
Really liked where they edited Paul’s video to make it seem like he was saying they pulled it out of the water with the mussels on it even though he repeatedly said the boat wasn’t in any water(nor had it been for about a year) when he retrieved it.
Congratulations Fab Rats for standing your ground snd Fighting it in Court! Vindicated! As others has mentioned, that Roque inspector should be Fired. He’s just going to go and Harass Someone else! Great job Paul and Michelle!🤙😎
