Mahwah top cop irate over shooting

By Carolyn Salazar/Monsy Alvarado

Mahwah's police chief Tuesday blasted the state Department of Environmental Protection over how it has handled the shooting of a Ramapough Mountain Indian by a park ranger.

Meanwhile, questions arose over whether state park police even have jurisdiction over the Ramapo Mountain area, where Saturday's shooting occurred.

Emil Mann, 34, was shot three times by Ranger Chad Walder during what tribe members say was an afternoon cookout in or near Ringwood State Park.

Mahwah Police Chief James N. Batelli on Tuesday accused DEP officials of not doing more to address community outrage. He also said park rangers never told his department that they were in the area, nor did they alert township police of the shooting.

Yet Mahwah police officers now have to deal with the fallout, Batelli said, even though they weren't there.

"The agency came into our jurisdiction and was involved in this shooting, and they are leaving us to deal with it. That really shows lack of professionalism on their part," Batelli said. "The community is entitled to some information. They are the shooters -- we are not."

DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura countered that the agency has been cooperating with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, which has taken the lead in the investigation.

"The DEP has been responsive," she said, "But this is an ongoing investigation, and the agency does not want to jeopardize that investigation."

Makatura also insisted that a DEP official did try calling Mahwah police after the shooting but was unable to get through.

Batelli challenged her statement. "I can emphatically say the park police never placed a call to our agency on Saturday," he said. "This is just another example of the character of this agency."

Emil Mann, who was charged late Tuesday in Mahwah Municipal Court, remained in critical condition Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center. The nature of the charges was unclear.

Emil Mann "seems to be doing slightly better," said Steven Schefers, an attorney for Emil's cousin, Otis Mann, who was arrested on aggravated assault and weapons charges around the time of the shooting.

Otis Mann was brought into Mahwah Municipal Court on Tuesday wearing a jail-issue jumpsuit and handcuffs. His tearful daughter and wife sat in the front row. Kathleen Mann extended her hand and touched her husband as he walked by.

Schefers said official accounts are "very different" from what the Mann family has told him. However, he said he couldn't go into specifics.

"Mr. [Otis] Mann is a good, decent, hardworking family man,'' the lawyer said. "We strongly contest all of the allegations brought against my client.''

Municipal Judge Anthony J. Gianni Jr. ordered that Otis Mann remain held on $100,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail, pending a bail reduction hearing Thursday.

DEP officials have said that the shooting followed an altercation between all-terrain vehicle riders and park officers who were trying to stop them. Riding ATVs is prohibited in state parks.

Ramapough tribe members have said the brawl began after two dozen friends and family gathered for a barbecue about two miles into the woods off Mountain Road. Some were riding ATVs, they said.

Two park officers approached the group, tribe members said, and an argument ensued. One of the park officers, whom tribe members identified as Lt. Kelly Gottheiner, slapped and pepper-sprayed Otis Mann's 14-year-old daughter, they said. Otis Mann, 42, then grabbed Gottheiner's baton and attacked the officers, they said.

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said his investigators determined that Gottheiner approached Otis Mann as he was riding an ATV. The two began arguing and Mann grabbed Gottheiner's baton and tried to attack her, the prosecutor said. Gottheiner and Officer Kenneth Kriete then subdued and arrested Otis Mann, Molinelli said.

"It didn't appear that there was a barbecue going on," Molinelli said Monday. "And we believe it was Otis Mann who started the confrontation."

Molinelli, who on Monday said that witnesses weren't coming forward, did not return repeated phone calls on Tuesday.

After meeting with Molinelli for nearly two hours, Ramapough Chief Anthony Van Dunk said he felt the prosecutor was doing everything he could to find out the truth.

Van Dunk said he would speak with the tribe's council and elders to determine how they will proceed. "We just now need to find a system of communication to get both sides to help each other to clarify, rectify, and make sure in the future that protocols are developed, sensitivities are taught, and we never have a situation where our tribe is a target for any authority,'' he said.

Despite his patience, Van Dunk said he still suspects the community was targeted.

"Was it systemic, was it planned, was it just an incident?'' he said. "In my heart, I would like to say that this just happened to have happened. But knowing how the people feel about our tribe, there's a possibility that that wasn't the case."

The incident occurred near a former goat-breeding farm. Two abandoned stone-wall buildings, erected for the herd's caretaker, remain a popular hangout for tribe members, and non-tribe members rarely venture into the desolate area, Van Dunk said.

Bergen County and DEP officials said Tuesday that they weren't sure whether the county or state owns the land – a critical distinction that would reveal whether park rangers have authority over that section of the woods.

Brian Hague, spokesman for Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, said ownership was unclear because of a series of land swaps between the state and county over the past decade. "We're checking with the state," he said Tuesday afternoon, "but as of now we're just not sure."