Eyesore boat lands man in jail
The Associated Press
Aug. 12, 2007 11:10 AM

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - The former mayor of Stafford was ordered jailed until he finds a contractor to demolish the last of four decrepit boats from a residential lagoon.

Wesley Bell remained in the Ocean County jail Saturday, according to a jail official.

The day before, Judge John A. Peterson told the 69-year-old former mayor that he would stay in jail until he produced a signed agreement with a contractor to raise and demolish the MaBell, a 60-foot, wooden-hulled former lobster boat.

As Bell was taken to the jail in handcuffs, he promised that he'd replace the MaBell with another boat and that area residents would have to "live with it."

"I'll buy a steel boat, whatever size it is, and park it in the same place," Bell said.

Bell had also gone to jail earlier in the week when he was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement official and disorderly conduct over what authorities claimed was his repeated shouting and pointing at Peterson in a previous hearing.

The Associated Press was not able to reach Bell at the jail Saturday.

Quoted: Eyesore boat lands man in jail The Associated Press Aug. 12, 2007 11:10 AM TOMS RIVER, N.J. - The former mayor of Stafford was ordered jailed until he finds a contractor to demolish the last of four decrepit boats from a residential lagoon. Wesley Bell remained in the Ocean County jail Saturday, according to a jail official. The day before, Judge John A. Peterson told the 69-year-old former mayor that he would stay in jail until he produced a signed agreement with a contractor to raise and demolish the MaBell, a 60-foot, wooden-hulled former lobster boat. As Bell was taken to the jail in handcuffs, he promised that he'd replace the MaBell with another boat and that area residents would have to "live with it." "I'll buy a steel boat, whatever size it is, and park it in the same place," Bell said. Bell had also gone to jail earlier in the week when he was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement official and disorderly conduct over what authorities claimed was his repeated shouting and pointing at Peterson in a previous hearing. The Associated Press was not able to reach Bell at the jail Saturday.

Oh thank god the streets are safer now.

Fucking bunch of retards show more intellect.

...ordered jailed until he finds a contractor...

I knew all contractors were crooks, but I guess I never put 2 and 2 together to figure out that a jail was the best place to find one.  

Bulldozer and 1/2 steel plate UP!

lol @ "his property".  What do you think this is, the 1800s?  Its a shared community now.

So what law was he breaking ?

It takes a village...

Quoted: So what law was he breaking ?

Illegal having a boat on his own property, what else silly.

Quoted: Quoted: So what law was he breaking ? Illegal having a boat on his own property, what else silly.

Class Y felony here.  And I can shoot you for it if you flee from it.

Quoted: lol @ "his property".  What do you think this is, the 1800s?  Its a shared community now.

Quoted: ...ordered jailed until he finds a contractor... I knew all contractors were crooks, but I guess I never put 2 and 2 together to figure out that a jail was the best place to find one.

Hey!!! I'm honest.

LOL @ anyone living in that area.

Writing is on the wall.

It says:  GET THE FUCK OUT.

Quoted: Bulldozer and 1/2 steel plate UP!

welcome to the police state

good for him, standing up for his rights.

Quoted: TOMS RIVER, N.J.

There's a big clue in this part.

Hell, if Jersey treats their subjects concerning nuisance violations as badly as they do about owning firearms, I'm surprised the whole state isn;t under house arrest.

Of course, I guess they already are.

At least we idiots in Illannoys still have someone to flaunt our minimally greater freedoms at.

Poor bastards.

Quoted: Quoted: lol @ "his property".  What do you think this is, the 1800s?  Its a shared community now. extraball.sunsite.dk/behave/stfu.jpg

Is it really that hard to see the sarcasm?

Quoted: lol @ "his property".  What do you think this is, the 1800s?  Its a shared community now.

GTFO

You and Hillary

It's pretty sad seeing this country turn into Europe.

Quoted: Bell had also gone to jail earlier in the week when he was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement official and disorderly conduct over what authorities claimed was his repeated shouting and pointing at Peterson in a previous hearing

ROFL!!!

in my town we have a city beautification thing that if anything on your private property that doesn't look good (car, flowerbed, garden, clothesline, junk, fence, etc) to the city officials, you will be fined until you remove it.

Quoted: Quoted: Bell had also gone to jail earlier in the week when he was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement official and disorderly conduct over what authorities claimed was his repeated shouting and pointing at Peterson in a previous hearing ROFL!!!

I am sorry but, that is some
BULLSHIT!!

He owns no property. It is the King's property. And the King is displeased.

Quoted: The boat was an un-seaworthy derelict, draining oil and diesel into the channel.  He's had several contempt of court charges for failing to obey a court order to make reasonable repairs to the vessel to prevent further pollution. Regardless, hit a cop, go to jail.

There's that damn reality thing again.

No HOA for me. Its fucked up that you cant park a $100k boat in your drive but your neighbor can park a $500 car.

Quoted: Quoted: The boat was an un-seaworthy derelict, draining oil and diesel into the channel.  He's had several contempt of court charges for failing to obey a court order to make reasonable repairs to the vessel to prevent further pollution. Regardless, hit a cop, go to jail.   There's that damn reality thing again.

Where does it say he hit a cop ?

height=8

Quoted: The boat was an un-seaworthy derelict, draining oil and diesel into the channel.  He's had several contempt of court charges for failing to obey a court order to make reasonable repairs to the vessel to prevent further pollution. Regardless, hit a cop, go to jail.

IIRC there is a section of the EPA Clean Water Act that covers craft dumping/leaking pollutants into the waterways and the repair/fines/requirements etc. I poked around but haven't found it yet.

Judge: Bell stays in custody until fourth boat is removed
By DONNA WEAVER Staff Writer, (609) 978-2015
Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007
TOMS RIVER — For the second time this week, former Stafford Township Mayor Wesley K. Bell was led out of an Ocean County Superior Court in handcuffs, this time for failing to comply with a judge's order to remove all his sinking boats from a township lagoon.
On Monday, Bell was removed from Superior Court Judge John A. Petersen's courtroom in handcuffs after he allegedly assaulted an Ocean County sheriff’s officer.

Bell will remain in custody until he can provide a signed agreement with a contractor to have the Ma Bell, the last of the four boats, removed from the lagoon, Petersen ruled.

Monday, Petersen ordered Bell to remove three remaining boats from the lagoon visible from Route 72 by Friday morning at 9 a.m. — but the Ma Bell remained in the lagoon Friday. A contract was not able to be secured with a company to tow the vessel to be repaired, according to Bell.

“But why not; why do you not have a contract to tow this boat when you had since May 15?” Petersen asked Bell repeatedly.



Petersen ordered Bell in May to remove all of the vessels by June 15 — but Bell did not comply. Bell was assessed $500 per day for each vessel that remained in the lagoon past the deadline.
Earlier this month Bell removed one of the boats and then this week two more, but time ran out for Bell to have the Ma Bell towed to Flanigan Brothers Boat Works in Fairton, Cumberland County.

Owner Donald Flanigan testified via telephone Friday and denied ever telling Bell that the Ma Bell could be brought there for repairs. Flanigan testified that the U.S. Coast Guard contacted him and told him that Bell's boats were “a problem” and not seaworthy. Although Flanigan had done repairs on the Optic, the first boat removed from the lagoon, he did not want to undertake refurbishing the Ma Bell.

“I have no intentions of taking the boat and I don't want to. I don’t want to put it on my railway,” Flanigan said. “The Optic was destroyed and that’s the end of anything I want to do with this.”

But according to Bell, failing to remove the Ma Bell on time did not come without trying on his part.

“I have been out there in my bathing suit and I got sunburned,” Bell yelled at Petersen.

Bell continued to blame government agencies — including the U.S. Coast Guard and the state Marine Police — for the delay in the removal of the Ma Bell, a 60-foot lobster boat.

“No one I called about a contract responded yet. I think they're all afraid of the Marine Police and the harassment. If the Ma Bell were operable it would already be gone, but the Marine police scuttled it,” Bell said in court Friday.

Petersen spent about three and a half hours Friday calling about a half-dozen contractors — all of whom said they would not tow the boat in the water. Two suggested it be demolished. But Bell refused.

“You can't make me destroy my boat; this is what you wanted all along,” Bell screamed at Petersen and Deputy Attorney James Hill, who prosecuted the case.

During most of the proceedings, four Ocean County sheriff's officers were positioned in the courtroom and moved in on Bell several times after repeated outbursts.

Bell, who is 69-years-old, had a stroke several years ago and brought up what he said is a disability several times during the proceedings.

“I don't see anyone helping me; I see everyone trying to stop me. I’m disabled and I’m being treated like a criminal,” Bell shouted at one point.

Melanie Donohue, attorney for Stafford Township, suggested that Petersen enforce the order imposed on Monday and incarcerate Bell.

“Incarceration should be a motivator and should be on the table today,” said Donohue. “If he can cool his heels in jail this weekend the Ma Bell may be out on Monday.”

Peterson apparently agreed.

“I have tried to do everything today to keep you out of jail. I am going to have you incarcerated,” Petersen told Bell as a circle of sheriff's officers converged on the ex-mayor. The state used a lot of restraint and never asked for incarceration, Hill said Friday evening.

“The judge finally, after all the efforts that were taken — calling at least six different parties today: the towboat people, the Coast Guard, the salvage entities — just completely undercut Mr. Bell's creditability,” Hill said.

As of Friday at 9 p.m., Bell was still in custody, held with no bail on a contempt charge at the Ocean County Jail, a spokesman said.

The Ma Bell rocked in choppy waters as a storm rolled in, its side newly sprayed with orange paint that reads “smash me.”

Bell's wife, Annmarie, returned home from a vacation in Florida on Friday evening to find herself locked out of her Stafford Township home, she said, so she’s staying with her daughter. Annmarie Bell spoke of Gary Lathrop, the contractor who pulled three of the boats from the lagoon, and said he did a good job. But Lathrop’s quote of $7,500 to demolish the Ma Bell, given during his telephone testimony in court Friday, was a little too steep for Annmarie Bell, although securing a contractor is the only way Wesley Bell will be released.

“$7,500! These people are crazy. I don't even have $700 to my name right now. Maybe I should just leave him up there,” she said chuckling.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: The boat was an un-seaworthy derelict, draining oil and diesel into the channel.  He's had several contempt of court charges for failing to obey a court order to make reasonable repairs to the vessel to prevent further pollution. Regardless, hit a cop, go to jail.   There's that damn reality thing again. Where does it say he hit a cop ?

It doesn't the article was referring to what he did towards the judge in this case.

I was referring to the envoirnmental contamination.

ETA: ah the other story has it. Bell was removed from Superior Court Judge John A. Petersen's courtroom in handcuffs after he allegedly assaulted an Ocean County sheriff’s officer.

You don't have to strike a cop to get those charges.  You can get that by shrugging off his hand when he grabs you.

I am sure the guy is going to be able to comply with the judges order (to find someone to tow the boat away) from the jail cell.

Also it's not on his property if it's in the water.

It sounds like Mr Bell wasn't the most liked mayor of Stafford and some people are really enjoying themselves now.

Maybe he can get some help from Ed Brown.  They sound like they're both the same kind of guy.