Shaugnessy charged with misdemeanor

Deputy Belknap County Attorney Wayne Coull has charged Ed Shaughnessy, 51, of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and owner of the 911 Site Construction company, with cutting trees and filling wetlands on land off White Oaks Road without the necessary permits required from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES).

Apart from remarking that he had been branded an "(expletive) tree bandit," Shaughnessy said yesterday that he could not comment on the charges. "I haven't had time to pick up the charges," he said. Recently Shaughnessy became the president of the world corporation operated by the Hells Angels and almost at once initiated a lawsuit against Walt Disney Productions for using the club's name and logo in a forthcoming movie without authorization.

Last September, state and local law enforcement agents accompanied by environmental officials swooped on an 11.1-acre parcel owned by Black Oaks Laconia, LLC, of which Shaughnessy is a principal. The land is bordered on the north by a 23-acre tract at the foot of Fillmore Avenue where the Hells Angels' clubhouse stands and on the east by Gilford town line. The parcel is enveloped on the south and west by 108 acres owned by Ron Ori of Swampscott, Massachusetts as White Oaks Realty Trust, LLC.

Coull has charged Shaughnessy with "unpermitted terrain alteration," a class A misdemeanor, clearing and altering approximately six acres of the 11 acres owned by Black Oaks Laconia , LLC without a permit, claiming further that he did so "negligently." Shaughnessy is also charged with "knowingly" filling wetlands on the adjoining property owned by Ori "to create a road connecting the property owned by Black Oaks Laconia, LLC to White Oaks Road" without a dredge and fill permit from DES. Black Oak's deed to the 11 acres includes a 50-foot right-of-way across Ori's property.

The alleged crimes arose when Shaughnessy graded and graveled a road leading across Ori's property to his 11 acres. In April, Shanna Saunders, Director of Planning, advised Shaughnessy in writing that he could not improve the road without a driveway permit and that he could not work in the wetlands. She also told him that she would be inspecting the site.

According to Shaughnessy, Eric Mitchell & Associates of Bedford, an engineering firm, met twice with the Planning Department and submitted detailed plans of the site, including the grades of the road and location of the wetlands. "It cost me $30,000," he said.

Shaughnessy questioned the need for a driveway permit, insisting that he intended only to improve a longstanding road, not construct a new one. However, he ultimately relented and received a driveway permit from the Department of Public Works, though he noted on the form that "This permit is filed under protest. We feel that this road or driveway has been there for 100 years."

On June 28, Saunders ordered Shaughnessy to stop all work on the site. Shaughnessy said that she claimed he had encroached on the wetlands without a permit. He acknowledged that he had replaced two culverts under the improved road in an effort to prevent flooding, which sometimes made the road impassable and backed up on to the neighboring property. Likewise, Shaughnessy denied that he had cut timber on the site owned by Black Oaks Laconia, LLC without a permit. brandishing a bill for $1,060 dollars in unpaid timber yield taxes. "I had a permit," he said.

After local and state officials descended on the site in September, Shaughnessy claimed that since Saunders issued her order all work on the site had ceased. "Since the day she stopped it, there hasn't been one (expletive) thing, not one (expletive) truck driven down that road," he said. "Now she calls in the (expletive) cavalry. Cops. The Attorney General." Saunders insisted that not only did she not initiate the investigation of the site but also learned of it only after the fact.

Instead, court documents indicate that the investigation leading to the charges was begun by Sergeant Chris Cost of the Belknap County Sheriff's Department whose suspicions were first aroused on April 1 when he noticed "significant development of a driveway running into the woods." Between April 1 and May 10 Cost observed "large construction type dump trucks entering and exiting this newly constructed driveway" where "Trees had been cleared and the road ... filled and graded with gravel of sufficient width and depth to support 18-wheel tractor-trailer type trucks." Cost learned that on April 12 Saunders ordered a halt to work at the site, advising Shaughnessy that he required a driveway permit from the Department of Public Works (DPW) and could not disturb wetlands without a permit from DES.

Cost interviewed Saunders on September 6, when she told him that she observed "numerous violations" when she visited the site on June 6. She said the driveway had been built through wetlands, culverts installed improperly and wetlands disturbed. Following her visit, Saunders again informed Shaughnessy that no more work could proceed until all the required permits were granted. Later, on June 28, Saunders advised Shaughnessy that he would require retroactive permits for the work that had already been completed, including a permits for building the driveway from (DPW), altering wetlands, buffers and terrain from the Planning Department and DES.

In July, Cost, accompanied by Coull and an attorney from the Environmental Protection Bureau, called on Ori in Massachusetts. Ori was shown aerial photographs Cost took of the work on his property and told that timber had been cut on his land. Ori said that almost a year earlier the Assessor's Department informed him of "alleged illegal timber cutting" on his property. He replied "I am not aware of any work. I did not authorize any work. If you think that there is illegal timber cut — Please notify Laconia Police Dept. ASAP."

State and local officials met in the office of the Belknap County Attorney to discuss the situation. After examining photographs and maps, they concluded that wetlands had been illegally filled on both parcels. They also became concerned about the extent of the land that was cleared on the Black Oaks property, since alterations to terrain of more than 100,000 square feet require approval from DES. The officials agreed that the site would have to be inspected to determine the extent of alleged violations.