YORK, PA.(WPMT) – A Spring Grove man is suing two Wildlife Conservation Officers and two state game commission officials. The attorney for Michael A. Kern...

YORK, PA.(WPMT) – A Spring Grove man is suing two Wildlife Conservation Officers and two state game commission officials. The attorney for Michael A. Kern, filed the suit Monday in federal court in Harrisburg against Pa. Wildlife Conservation Officers, Steven Knickel, Kevin Clouser, R. Matthew Hough, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Bradley J. Myers, Director of the South-central Region. The lawsuit charges all four with Unlawful Arrest, Excessive Useage of Force, and Failure to Train.

The lawsuit stems from an incident a year ago on December 2, 2013. According to court documents, Officer Kevin Clouser at about 9:30 am while on routine patrol in the area of Jackson Township spotted a hunter in a deer blind located on Michael Kern’s property. After removing the hunter from the blind, Officer Clouser contacted his supervisor Officer Steven Knickel. When Knickel arrived he demanded that the hunter summon Kern to the property. Before Kern arrived, the officers allowed the hunter to go free.

Once Kern arrived, he provided Officer Knickel with his driver’s license which contain all the necessary information to complete a summary game law citation. Kern then told the two officers that he did not wish to speak to law enforcement regarding the summary game law violations. He refused to answer any more questions exercising his rights under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Kern then walked on his own property toward the hunter who had already been told that he was free to leave.

Officer Knickel, in the process of completing the citation for the alleged summary offense ordered Officer Clouser to immediately handcuff Kern without cause or justification. Clouser charged Kern and tackled him to the ground.

Then both officers forcefully grabbed Kern’s hands behind his back and placed handcuffs on his wrists. The action injured Kern’s wrist and shoulder. He was then placed in the back of the Game Commission vehicle and taken to the Central Booking Center in York.

Kern was cited with three summary violations under Title 58 of the Pennsylvania Code. He was eventually found not guilty of all summary violations.

In the count involving Unlawful Arrest, the lawsuit says the wildlife officers violated Kern’s right to be free from arrest without probable cause in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitutuon. In the Excessive Usage of Force count, the lawsuit contends that Kern was physically abused by the Wildlife Officers in violation of the Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. And that both men acted in accordance with the custom, practice and procedure of the Pennsylvania Game Commission under its Executive Director Matthew Hough and Bradley Myers, Director of the South-central Region.

Hough, Myers and Knickel are also charged with Failure to Train as the men responsible for Officer Clouser’s actions. And the actions of each defendant named in the lawsuit constitute assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.