mjh's blog

Land of the Free

Mon 06/21/04 at 11:30 am

href="http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-marsh20.html">Feds haul passenger off cruise ship in cuffs for marshmallow incident

BY CATHERINE WILSON

A teacher’s aide who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone National Park last

year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs and hauled before a judge Friday, wrongfully accused of

failing to pay the fine.

Hope Clarke, 32, crying and in leg shackles, told the judge she was rousted at 6:30 a.m. by federal

agents after the ship returned to Miami from Mexico. [She spent nearly nine hours in detention.] She insisted that she had been required

to pay the $50 fine before she could leave Yellowstone, which has strict rules about food storage to prevent wildlife from eating human

food.

Customs agents meet all cruise ships arriving from foreign ports and run random checks of passenger lists, and a warrant

claiming Clarke had not paid the fine was found in the federal database.

This seems like an overreaction, to

terrorize someone over such an offense. I hope she sues John AssKraft. mjh

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