Experienced runner Michelino Sunseri is facing prison time for running on mountain trails.
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Imagine you tie your shoes and breathe fresh mountain air, then climb the trails on the Grand Tetons National Park. You complete the legendary speed record in the world of super running, and the runners are celebrating you. Then, you get a Federal crimes.
Sounds like a joke, right? Sadly, it’s true – now happening in Michelino Sunseri, a 32-year-old bartender and record-breaking mountain runner.
Sunseri ran a trail, thousands before him: he walked a shabby trail, a trail used by hikers, climbers and runners for decades. No door. No park rangers stop people. Just a little sign about the hidden “erosion” in the half of the sage. But this is enough National Park Service Charge him Federal crimes.
Now, Sunseri is looking for a fine of up to $5,000, which could be in federal prison for six months and, worst of all, a permanent criminal record. To increase the insult of injury, he can also be banned by the Grand Tetons National Park in the mountains he loves over the next five years.
This is not justice. This is excessive.
The Grand Teton Mountains were outside the Grand Teton National Park logo outside Jackson, Wyoming, USA on Thursday, August 25, 2011. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may disappoint stock investors, and he is committed to boosting stimulus when he speaks at the annual Fed workshop tomorrow. (Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sunseri shouldn’t be a criminal. He did not destroy or hurt anyone. He ran a trail. He didn’t damage the trail, and he was open to it. He posted a record-breaking run on digital applications, when government bureaucrats decided to use him as an example.
When federal bureaucrats serve as lawmakers, judges and juries, almost no one of us can do it. As a former federal prosecutor, I can tell you that the Justice Department won 90% of the cases. Often there is no common sense, no grace, no understanding. Just a primitive, unrestricted force.
Here’s the fact: it can happen to you.
When the government creates a vague rule and hidden signs and then prosecutes those who violate them Don’t know and don’t knowthis is not justice. It’s about power and control.
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Sunseri’s case is a warning to all of us. It shows what happens when Americans are expected to follow rules that they can’t even see. No one in the entire federal government tracks all of this, but we estimate that over 300,000 federal regulations are subject to federal criminal penalties.
Remember that once you are convicted of a federal crime, your records will not be deleted. Even if you are pardoned, your criminal record will follow you throughout your life and prevent housing, education and employment opportunities.
Sunseri’s case has nothing to do with a trail. It’s about the growing gap between everyday citizens and the bureaucracy that they think are best known. It’s about the erosion of freedom in the name of government authorities.
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We can’t sit down and let this continue. The government over-excessiveness is true, and the case is an exhibition. We need laws enacted by elected members of parliament, not irresponsible federal agencies. We need clarity, not hidden signs and trap rules. Most importantly, we need a judicial system to commemorate the differences between criminals, and someone who likes to run on the hill where he lives.
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