Census worker is taken to court for trespassing

Associated Press

HONOLULU

In these divisive times, Census worker Russell Haas has come to expect some resistance when he goes door to door to count the residents of the rugged communities near Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. He didn’t expect to get arrested.

An attempt to get one resident, a county police officer, to fill out Census forms landed Haas in the back of a patrol car with a trespassing charge.

The case is in federal court, the latest example of disputes this year between Census workers and residents who don’t want to deal with them. It has created a rare instance in which federal prosecutors have stepped in to serve as criminal defense attorneys.

“I was trained to encourage everybody to be in the Census,” said Haas, 57, an ex-New Jersey police officer.

Nationwide, Census workers have met more hostility than they did in the last count a decade ago. The agency tallied 436 incidents involving assaults or threats against its 635,000 enumerators through June 29, more than double the 181 incidents in 2000.

The Census intends to finish its count by the end of August, said Celeste Jimenez of the Los Angeles Regional Census Center.

When he went out March 20, he said, he found trouble when a resident refused to accept Census forms and told Haas to leave his fenced property.

The resident continued to refuse to take the Census, and Haas said he waited outside a chain-link fence while the resident called his co-workers at the Hawaii County Police Department.

When police arrived, instead of asking the resident to accept the forms as required by federal law, the officers crumpled the papers into Haas’ chest and handcuffed him, Haas said.

When the case goes to U.S. District Court on July 22, Hawaii County Deputy Prosecutor Roland Talon will argue that Haas overstepped his authority.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Butrick claims Haas is protected by the U.S. Constitution for actions taken in his capacity as a federal employee.

Butrick filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the case.