MIKE BRAUN Arrest threat wrongly made

When James Volpe of Tippecanoe Road bagged a deer with a bow in Athens County during the weeklong Ohio deer firearms season he had no idea it would lead to the threat of his arrest.
After gutting and cleaning the deer, Volpe hung the tagged doe carcass from a tree in his back yard before taking it to The Meating Place on New Road in Austintown.
Volpe, 29, was doing what thousands of other Ohio hunters do when they harvest a deer: They hang the carcass before butchering.
"It would have been there 20 minutes or so, no more," Volpe said, "I was waiting for my daughter to go to school." He said he's done the same thing many times before.
Volpe was with his daughter, Learin, at the school bus stop by their apartment complex when a Mahoning County Sheriff's Department cruiser pulled into his driveway.
"The deputy told me to take the deer down," Volpe said.
The Canfield man said he respectfully -- and he stressed the word respectfully -- disagreed with the deputy about taking down a deer that he had every legal right to have hanging in his back yard.
"The deputy got out of his car and threatened me with arrest for disorderly conduct unless I took the deer down," he said.
Volpe said he then took down the deer and asked the deputy what law he was violating. "He had no answer, but said I was being disorderly because the hanging deer offended someone," Volpe said.
Nothing in game laws outlined by the Ohio Department of Natural Resource, Division of Wildlife prohibits hanging a deer carcass.
How this was resolved
Volpe said he then called the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department and talked to Major Michael Budd.
"Mike Budd was very understanding and respectful," Volpe said. "He told me that it was my right to hang the deer."
Budd said that the situation was not handled appropriately by the deputy involved, Bill Cranston. He said Cranston was disciplined with some remedial instruction in Ohio game laws.
Budd agreed that there is no law here that prevents hanging a harvested deer.
"He [Volpe] was a good citizen," Budd said. "He said he saw the deputy's point and took the deer down voluntarily."
Budd said that Volpe did not have a problem with removing the deer from public view, but that he was concerned about the arrest threat.
Budd said that Cranston was sent to the area after a caller complained about being offended by the deer.
"I told her that there was not much we could do, but that I'd send a cruiser," he said.
Volpe said he has been hunting deer with a bow for more than 15 years and even his wife, Nicole, hunts. They have hung deer at their residence before. "I have a freezer full of venison," he said. "I offer it to my neighbors all the time."
Volpe added: "I've had deputies stop by in past years when I had a deer out and congratulate me."
He said removing the deer was really not a problem. In fact, he said, because of Budd's reaction, he will likely be more considerate on where he hangs his deer.
"He treated me with the respect a law-abiding citizen deserves," Volpe said.
Angry about threat
"I was more angry because the deputy had threatened me with arrest just as my daughter was getting on the bus," he said. "She went to school thinking I was a criminal." He added that his daughter recently began learning how to bowhunt.
"I'm not a savage," he said. "And what I'm teaching her isn't savage."
Volpe said an internal affairs officer from the sheriff's department spoke with him -- and his daughter -- and assured them about the situation.
Volpe's situation was outlined on the Internet at the hunter's forum section of www.gofishohio.com. There were numerous positive comments from others in support of Volpe.
The Austintown High School graduate and Lordstown General Motors Assembly Plant worker said he was not going to pursue any further action.
braun@vindy.com