Ratickle
Founding Member / Super Moderator
I guess I'm not surprised after reading the article completely. They did some dumb stuff.......
Event organizers charged at Barge Party
Emil Whitis..09:00 AM
Sandusky
The likelihood of an upcoming Sandusky Bay barge party is up in the air after state and federal agencies brought the hammer down on organizers of Saturday’s event.
The bash’s godfather, Shaun Bickley, 46, has requested a sit-down with the Coast Guard, the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s liquor enforcement division and any other would-be law enforcers.
Bickley said he wants to hash out some ground rules before he’s confronted by any other surprises.
“I want a meeting with these people,” Bickley said. “I’ll live by your rules, but you’ve got to tell me what they are.”
He said if he can’t get some face time with the powers that be, he’ll seriously consider canceling the next barge party, scheduled for July 28.
“I can’t let my family continue to be targeted like this,” he said. “For God’s sake, they tricked my 16-year-old son into selling them a beer.”
At Saturday’s barge party, Ohio Department of Public Safety undercover agents approached Bickley’s son, Colt, who was grilling burgers and hot dogs on a small barge. They pointed to a case of beer — reserved for the adult cooks — and asked if they could buy a few cans, Bickley said.
The boy sold three cans of beer to the undercovers for a total of $9.
Colt, who’d been helping his father organize the event for two solid days, then asked for a break and a beer. Bickley said he granted both.
Later, he noticed his son was missing. After asking around, he heard the boy had been arrested and liquor control agents took him to the other side of the peninsula.
When Bickley caught up to the agents, he said they accused him of selling alcohol at a venue without a liquor license.
Agents also charged Colt with underage consumption, Bickley said.
The officers didn’t provide copies of any of the charges, Bickley said — they told him they were taking their case straight to Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan.
And the interagency police action didn’t stop there.
As Saturday’s party waned, Bickley’s father, Joel, loaded up the band, paramedics and a few others on the family’s licensed tug boat, providing them a ride back to the mainland.
A Coast Guard vessel followed the boat all the way to the Sandusky Bay shipping channel, where Coast Guard crews stopped and boarded the boat, Bickley said.
They wrote Joel a “notice of violation” for piloting a registered tug boat without a license and operating a ferry boat without a license, according to the Bickleys.
Marblehead Coast Guard Station commander Sean McCarthy confirmed Bickley’s story about the boarding, but he added that it had nothing to do with Joel’s family ties or the Bickleys’ role in organizing the barge party.
“We stopped the vessel for an administrative inspection due to the amount of people on board,” McCarthy said. “There were some deficiencies noted.”
McCarthy refused to state exactly what those deficiencies were. He said the matter is currently being investigated by a separate branch of the Coast Guard, the “marine safety unit.”
McCarthy promised to have someone from that unit call the Register, but as of 11 p.m. Monday that call never came.
Phillip Langston, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s investigative unit, said he was too busy to confirm the arrests of Bickley and Colt.
“I’ll see if I can get to it tomorrow,” Langston said at about 1 p.m. Monday.
He did, however, confirm they agency’s presence at the barge party.
The Register has sent a public records request to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, seeking documents on all arrests made at Saturday’s barge party.
Over the past six years, Bickley has hosted at least 10 barge parties, each one boasting about 4,000 revelers. Not once has there been a serious incident, Bickley said.
And while it’s a rough estimate, each barge party injects about $1 million into the local economy, Bickley said.
Event organizers charged at Barge Party | Sandusky Register
Event organizers charged at Barge Party
Emil Whitis..09:00 AM
Sandusky
The likelihood of an upcoming Sandusky Bay barge party is up in the air after state and federal agencies brought the hammer down on organizers of Saturday’s event.
The bash’s godfather, Shaun Bickley, 46, has requested a sit-down with the Coast Guard, the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s liquor enforcement division and any other would-be law enforcers.
Bickley said he wants to hash out some ground rules before he’s confronted by any other surprises.
“I want a meeting with these people,” Bickley said. “I’ll live by your rules, but you’ve got to tell me what they are.”
He said if he can’t get some face time with the powers that be, he’ll seriously consider canceling the next barge party, scheduled for July 28.
“I can’t let my family continue to be targeted like this,” he said. “For God’s sake, they tricked my 16-year-old son into selling them a beer.”
At Saturday’s barge party, Ohio Department of Public Safety undercover agents approached Bickley’s son, Colt, who was grilling burgers and hot dogs on a small barge. They pointed to a case of beer — reserved for the adult cooks — and asked if they could buy a few cans, Bickley said.
The boy sold three cans of beer to the undercovers for a total of $9.
Colt, who’d been helping his father organize the event for two solid days, then asked for a break and a beer. Bickley said he granted both.
Later, he noticed his son was missing. After asking around, he heard the boy had been arrested and liquor control agents took him to the other side of the peninsula.
When Bickley caught up to the agents, he said they accused him of selling alcohol at a venue without a liquor license.
Agents also charged Colt with underage consumption, Bickley said.
The officers didn’t provide copies of any of the charges, Bickley said — they told him they were taking their case straight to Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan.
And the interagency police action didn’t stop there.
As Saturday’s party waned, Bickley’s father, Joel, loaded up the band, paramedics and a few others on the family’s licensed tug boat, providing them a ride back to the mainland.
A Coast Guard vessel followed the boat all the way to the Sandusky Bay shipping channel, where Coast Guard crews stopped and boarded the boat, Bickley said.
They wrote Joel a “notice of violation” for piloting a registered tug boat without a license and operating a ferry boat without a license, according to the Bickleys.
Marblehead Coast Guard Station commander Sean McCarthy confirmed Bickley’s story about the boarding, but he added that it had nothing to do with Joel’s family ties or the Bickleys’ role in organizing the barge party.
“We stopped the vessel for an administrative inspection due to the amount of people on board,” McCarthy said. “There were some deficiencies noted.”
McCarthy refused to state exactly what those deficiencies were. He said the matter is currently being investigated by a separate branch of the Coast Guard, the “marine safety unit.”
McCarthy promised to have someone from that unit call the Register, but as of 11 p.m. Monday that call never came.
Phillip Langston, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s investigative unit, said he was too busy to confirm the arrests of Bickley and Colt.
“I’ll see if I can get to it tomorrow,” Langston said at about 1 p.m. Monday.
He did, however, confirm they agency’s presence at the barge party.
The Register has sent a public records request to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, seeking documents on all arrests made at Saturday’s barge party.
Over the past six years, Bickley has hosted at least 10 barge parties, each one boasting about 4,000 revelers. Not once has there been a serious incident, Bickley said.
And while it’s a rough estimate, each barge party injects about $1 million into the local economy, Bickley said.
Event organizers charged at Barge Party | Sandusky Register
WOW
