Summer Solstice 2012 Illegal Arrest

Friday afternoon June 15th 2012

I was told by my son Jake that at “10 am on Friday June 15th Pete Hiryack, Mike Heydt and the Police Chief came to my residence to express their concern about my “Shindig.” Pete Hyriak called it and I quote “we heard about this little shindig you guys are having , we heard about it over Facebook and Twitter.” “Because of their collective concern” about a rumor of a large party on Facebook and Twitter , that they said that they had been watching us on Facebook and Twitter (I was told by Pete Hyriak that he had received a call that they had received about my summer solstice celebration).

I was at work so my son spoke with them and took their card. I immediately drove over to the township building to speak with Pete, as soon as I returned home. Pete and I discussed what we felt were pertinent to the situation. We discussed the parking, the band schedule and the noise. I told him the cars would park in the development on the right side, the bands would be off by 11 and the night time would be acoustic guitars and voices. He assured me that that would be fine and shook my hand. He then inquired as to my personal relationship with my current partner Andy Rivenburg. He then stated after I told him that although we were not married, we could be considered as such” he said “awh your breaking my heart”.

He, Pete Hyriak, asked if I would like to speak with the chief of police and I said yes, he went to the other side for a moment and returned stating that he was out to lunch and that he would tell him of my visit.

Friday at 10:45pm
Zack, my son came running out to get me and said the police were there and that they were coming back into the property. I walked over the pool deck and down the steps into the grass, ¼ of the way to the bridge and put my arms out as if to say , why are you here? and asked “ can I help you?” I stated that this is private property and they had no right to be here. I asked if they had a warrant, the officer stated that he was on an investigation and if I did not move he would arrest me. He then encountered Andy at the pool house and stated the same thing, and was met with the same response. Then police officer Poretta pushed into Andy and stated that if he touched him, the officer would put him under arrest.

The band Echoes Talk back was playing and they stopped when the police came into the back yard. There was on young lady sitting at the fire and the officer asked her her birthday and she attempted to lie to him about the year. He then asked her and she told him her correct birth date and warned her not to lie to him again. He called in her information to dispatch and got her correct information. She then told him that she had drank a can of beer and consented to a breathalyzer. He did not show us the result but wrote her up and left. Showing it to the other officers and chuckling about the result.

I asked him how to prevent his return and was told that I should turn the band off at 10 pm, an hour earlier than Pete had agreed was a reasonable time to have them stop.

All day Saturday June 16th was great! Massages, healing, attunements, love and peace. The band Chestnut Grove rocked at 4 pm and Flux got on a little late at 8:20 and played until exactly 10:45 out of respect for the neighborhood and the police. Everyone gathered around the fire for some late night camp fire music, acoustic guitar and voices and one little drum.

Sunday June 17th
The scene was quite chill as I fell asleep alongside my friends at the fire, then at 3:30 am my son Zack came running back and yelled the police are here! I asked everyone to quiet down. Andy was seated next to me on my blanket as officers started screaming obscenities. “Shut the fuck up” the people stopped playing and the officers started to ask those people who were playing instruments to produce their identification. Harry, George, Brad and another person went to find their ID, they then asked for me “where is Heather Myers” I answered from where I was sitting I had been sleeping, right here, how can I help you? They then started to point at others around the fire telling the guitarist and drummer to get their ID because they were getting cited. Danny said the owners should go up to the house to get cited, to which I replied that I was too tired to walk to the house and could they please give it to me right there. They did not want to give it to me there so I asked that they give it to Andy since he is a co-owner of the property. And I was too tired, physically exhausted to walk to the house. I thought they would take Andy to the house but they ignored Andy as he stood up to go to the house with the officers. I started to softly sing, All you need is love. Instead of walking with Andy up to the house , the officers pushed me into the ground and placed handcuffs on me, yanking me up and dragging me away from the fire, I asked if I was under arrest and they ignored me. I asked again “if I am under arrest , read me my rights!” Again they ignored me plea.

This is sacred space, my Church! This is my spiritual celebration, the area I was abducted from is sacred space.

I remember turning around and starting to sing, All you need is love by the Beetles and then feeling them yank me up from the ground and put me into handcuffs. I asked why I was being arrested. Was I under arrest? And they refused to answer me. I then asked for them to read me my rights, again no answer. Andy was following us asking them why they were taking me, asking them to let me go. When we approached the bridge officer Peretta told Poex to “Cuff him” placing Andy under arrest also and when we got to the house I asked jake to call 911. And then I asked him to get my shoes.

He was on the phone with the 911 operator when we were put into separate cars and driven to the Pottstown police station. When we arrived there we were told to go into a garage, it was a storage area for bikes, lockers and there were snow chains on the wall. I was scared and said “ I don’t want to go in there” they told us to go in.

The Pottstown officers told us to go up the ramp, but the ramp was blocked. One of the officers cleared it and Andy and I went up. We entered a holding cell area where there was a person banging on the walls screaming and yelling, to the one officer joked about putting us in there for the night. Andy said “You are not putting me in there are you?” truly fearing that fate. I saw a face through the window of the holding cell, it looked like a monkey mask with fake eyes, cloudy, opaque. They banging & screaming continued for several minutes.

The banging and yelling continued a few minutes and I asked why he wasn’t taken to a hospital or given a 302 (mental health commitment). They said “ don’t worry mam he is fine”. The banging lasted a few minutes more and then stopped. Then a young police officer came into the finger print area where we were seated still in handcuffs, and made small talk with the officers. I got a strange feeling that the monkey/man in the holding cell may have been this officer in disguise.

I asked for a drink, and officer Peretta allowed me to go to the water fountain , that shot water up into my face and then the air. He then spoke to the other officer about putting shackles on me so that I could have my cuffs removed.

We waited while the officers got the machines working, took our photos and it took 30 min per hand to finger print me. I almost fell asleep on officer Peretta’s shoulder.

He put me back into the car while Andy stayed to get processed. I was delivered home and went directly into the house to check on everyone. Then out to the party to check on everyone there.

Andy came home an hour later.

I called the township and the chief of police and requested a meeting with him and Pete Hirayk, this was granted. I arrived at the meeting and the Chief, Pete and an older man Mr. Thiel were in the room. My friend Patty and I walked in and were introduced and started talking about the horrible encounter with the police that weekend. Half way through the meeting Mr. Thiel smacked his hands down on the desk and stated “You should have been tazed”. I was shocked! I had done nothing wrong, I had been severely abused by the Officers and instead of an apology I got more abuse.

September 27, 2012 I went into the township building for a trash sticker and was greeted by Mr. Thiel, he Joked about being Pete’s boss and extended his hand to introduce himself. I said , I believe we already met, a few months ago you said that I ought to be tazed, for singing in my own back yard. He said oh yes, I replied , do you think you should maybe apologize for that remark? And he said NO, you should have been, for all that going on out there.

Here is a video taken that night, though you can’t see much you can hear the officers threaten folks with arrest.

This post was submitted and authored by Heather via CopBlock.org’s submission tab. Please share your interactions with police at CopBlock.org by clicking here.