To Homeowner, $35 Fine Is A Big Croc
Odd appellate case focuses on illegal search, other issues
By CHRISTIAN NOLAN
Former Greenwich resident and pro se appellant Gary Ryder won’t say whether he has a pet crocodile. Or alligator. Or caiman, for that matter.
But a police officer reported seeing some type of seven- or eight-foot-long reptile in Ryder’s bathtub on a late summer afternoon in 2004. Ryder’s response: Whatever was there was not anyone else’s business, especially not the police officer’s.
“There could’ve been AK47s or Bin Laden in there. They shouldn’t have seen them,” Ryder told the Law Tribune.
What Ryder says was an illegal search is just one of several issues in a bizarre appellate case. Also in question: Can a defendant pursue an appeal after he’s paid a fine?
“This is all over $35. My only gain in this is at the end of the day maybe State v. Ryder will be a benchmark case for when people can and cannot enter your home,” said Ryder.
The saga began after police hopped a six-foot security gate and entered Ryder’s Greenwich home through an unlocked back door. Claiming “exigent circumstances,” they said they were searching for a missing 17-year-old male.
Upon entering a second-floor bathroom, police noticed a dark figure in the tub through a frosted shower door. Believing it could be the missing teen, police opened the door and saw, according to the police report, a “crocodile or large lizard.”
Police continued their search and did not find the boy, who, according to court documents, was the adopted son of Ryder and his former partner. It happened that the minor had moved to Vermont with the ex-partner. But Ryder still had custody of three other adopted children.
Ryder, who lived next door to actor Mel Gibson, said he consented to another search the next day but no reptile was found. However, a pedestrian in Greenwich’s Bruce Park two days later told police he saw a crocodile. Ryder noted that Gibson’s yard has a big pond. “So why would I go all the way [to Bruce Park] to let it loose?” Ryder asked. “Besides, I think it would’ve been seen again.”
Nevertheless, police arrested Ryder a month later for risk of injury to a child and illegal possession of a reptile. Ryder said the Department of Children and Families took away his three adopted sons and that he spent “thousands of dollars” in legal fees to regain custody. Once that happened, Ryder moved to Massachusetts.
In March 2006, Ryder moved to suppress the evidence obtained during the search of his house but the motion was denied. The prosecution nolled the risk of injury charge and Ryder agreed to plea nolo contendre to the reptile charge on the condition he reserved his right to appeal. He then paid a $35 fine that he claims the court insisted he pay right after the court hearing ended.
But Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Robert J. Scheinblum argued to the Appellate Court that Ryder’s appeal was moot because the fine had been paid and the case was essentially over. Last week, the Appellate Court sent the matter back to the trial court to hold an evidentiary hearing on whether Ryder paid the fine voluntarily. Ryder said that hearing might be held in the next few weeks.
The trial court hearing will also determine whether Ryder has suffered “prejudicial collateral consequences.” Ryder said the arrest forced him out of the state and hurt his reputation in the community. He said he has no chance of being able to adopt any more children and Greenwich police referred to him as “Michael Jackson.”
Ryder sued the Greenwich Police Department and his ex-partner in 2005 for $30 million in U.S. District Court. But the suit was dismissed last December.
Elizabeth Marsh, a professor of criminal and constitutional law at Quinnipiac University School of Law, said the only other cases with fact patterns involving crocodiles or alligators in a bathtub she could recall were cases involving drug dealers or gang wars.
Marsh said the state might end up citing a 2003 New York City case. Antoine Yates was mauled by a Siberian tiger he kept in his apartment. He told police he was attacked by a pit bull in the hallway but authorities searched his apartment and found the wild animal. The court said police acted reasonably.
Conversely, Marsh said, from reading the Ryder appellate decision, she was “hard-pressed to see how an alligator could look like a person” when police conducted their search of the second-floor shower.•
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