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Running club members face felony charges

By CARA RUBINSKY, Associated Press Writer

Sat Aug 25, 6:19 PM ET



Two people who sprinkled flour in a parking lot to mark a trail for their offbeat running club inadvertently caused a bioterrorism scare and now face a felony charge.

The sprinkled powder forced hundreds to evacuate an IKEA furniture store Thursday.

New Haven ophthalmologist Daniel Salchow, 36, and his sister, Dorothee, 31, who is visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach of peace, a felony.

The siblings set off the scare while organizing a run for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide group that bills itself as a "drinking club with a running problem."

"Hares" are given the task of marking a trail to direct runners, throwing in some dead ends and forks as challenges. On Thursday, the Salchows decided to route runners through the massive IKEA parking lot.

Police fielded a call just before 5 p.m. that someone was sprinkling powder on the ground. The store was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the night. The incident prompted a massive response from police in New Haven and surrounding towns.

Daniel Salchow biked back to IKEA when he heard there was a problem and told officers the powder was just harmless flour, which he said he and his sister have sprinkled everywhere from New York to California without incident.

"Not in my wildest dreams did I ever anticipate anything like that," he said.

Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city plans to seek restitution from the Salchows, who are
due in court Sept. 14.

"You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know," she said. "It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious. We're thankful it wasn't, but there were a lot of resources that went into figuring that out."

Wow! Has it really come to this, where flour constitutes the need for haz-mat and evacuations?? A quick sniff close up would have told them it was flour. I guess all these years of them eating bread that comes pre-sliced in plastic baggies and is made out of heaps of odd chemically things has removed them so far from what the ingredients of real bread are, they couldn't recognize it when they saw it. =)

Here's a follow-up:

On-On All,

As many of you may know, our court saga continues.
While the city of New Haven has decided not to seek
restitution, the state of CT is still persuing felony
charges. Please read the attached debut issue of the
Poison Ivy League Journal complete with up to date
coverage of the case, the amazing deeds of the Hashers
and ways that you can continue to help us as we fight
for our rights as people and Hashers.

Please pass this email and the attachment on to all
hashers you know- we need to get the word out.

We continue to be strengthened by the support of the
Hashers, thanks again.

On-On,
Dr. G, AHHtongue, and C-fest

Remember, use flour and know that we are proud to be Hashers.
----------------------------------------------------------
Restitution Down, Felony Continues

On-On fellow Hashers,

the debut of this newsletter begins with good news and a tribute to
the myriad of efforts of Hashers worldwide. After three weeks of the
unyielding support of Hashers via petitions, blogs, emails, t-shirts,
letters to the editor of numerous media sources and letters to the
mayor of the city of New Haven, your efforts are starting to pay off.
The City of New Haven has decided not to seek restitution. On On!
This has lifted an enormous weight off of our shoulders as we are no
longer worrying about having to give our first-born over to New Haven.
We applaud the city and mayor of New Haven for their strong
leadership in this matter.

While there is much to be celebrated in the recent decision of City of
New Haven, the State of Connecticut so far has not dropped the felony
charges against the infamous New Haven Two. The state attorney is
arguing that the actions (dropping flour) of Daniel and Doro Salchow
could be considered "reckless," which is a term included in the
"breach of peace" class D felony statute. Given Daniel's immigration
situation and Doro's foreign status, these charges cannot be taken
lightly. We go back to court on October 5th.

That said, we are reaching out to Hashers to continue their efforts by
directing their attention to the state attorney's office. If you
wrote letters to the mayor, please resend them to the state attorney.
If you didn't, we encourage you to write one now. Here's how: Please
write to Michael Dearington, State' Attorney; copy Marc Ramia, Asst.
State's Attorney; and copy David Strollo, Supv. Asst. State's
Attorney; 121 Elm Street New Haven, CT 06510 or give them a call at:
(203) 503-6823. You may also want to try conndcj@po.state.ct.us and
address it to the attention of all three names listed above. If
possible, please send a copy of the letter to shanakennedy@hotmail.com
(to be passed on to the lawyer).

Some possible topics to include in you letters: the history and
frequency of hashing; the fact that hundreds of Hashes go on each week
without incident and where there has been incident, it was dealt with
in an appropriate matter by law enforcement and justice systems alike;
it was just flour; our rights and anything else you think necessary.

Many Hashers responded to the media when this whole ordeal broke out.
We are asking that Hashers continue this with an emphasis on the state
of Connecticut needing to come to its senses. Check out this article:
www.nhregister.com/site/index.cfm
.

We would also like to thank our incredible lawyer, Michael Jefferson
for his amazing legal prowess. By 7:00 am of the morning after the
IKEA incident, Mike was on the phone with us and ready for court that
day. Because of Mike's quick response, Daniel's sister was able to go
back to Germany and her appearances in court have been waived.
Although he is not a Hasher, he should be. His steadfast commitment
to our case is to be commended.

Legal Defense Fund News

To date, Hashers from all over the place have raised money to help pay
the legal fees. We have been beyond amazed by this generous
outpouring of financial support. As it stands, Hashers have raised
close to $3,000. It truly has been amazing- thank you all.

A special thanks to Cap'n Crunch of DCH4 for organizing the legal
fund. Additonally, Matzo Balls of the San Luis Obispo H3 out in CA is
in the process of setting up a PayPale account to accept additional
funds- more to follow on this soon.

If any funds are left over after the legal fees are paid, it will be
donated to the Hill Health Center, a medical center for uninsured and
economically disadvantaged patients here in New Haven. Read about it
here: www.hillhealthcenter.com .

New Hash Song

Written by Moustache Rider of NH4 ad to be sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

Dr. Gonad [and his sister] went to town

Just to lay a trail,

Threw some flour on the ground

And, now he's facing jail!

Dr. Gonad, keep it up,

Don't let the HazMats Scare ya',

They're all Assholes and we know

The Judge is sure to clear ya'!

Upcoming Events

October 5th- return to court.

Near future- a large Hashing event here in New Haven- more details soon.

Special Thanks Also to Lance-a-nut from Long Beach H3 for his fabulous
t-shirt design.

<www.newhavenindependent.org/arch...e.php

Melissa Bailey | September 17, 2007 7:57 AM

Two members of an offbeat running club whose flour trail set off a terror
scare at IKEA will likely not have to pay restitution, according to a deal
reached with the city.

After originally seeking thousands of dollars in restitution for the cost
incurred by a dramatic hazmat scene in the IKEA parking lot on Aug. 23, the
city Friday agreed that community service, not monetary payback, would be a
more appropriate punishment for the runners.

Daniel Salchow, a local ophthalmologist and Dorothee Salchow, his sister
visiting from Hamburg, Germany, were both charged with first-degree breach
of peace, a felony, for inciting the terror scare.

The siblings are members of the Hash House Harriers, a "drinking group with
a running problem" with more than 1,800 chapters worldwide. When they
sprinkled flour through the IKEA parking lot on Aug. 23, setting a course
for a four-mile "hash," someone inside IKEA reported "suspicious powder."
Out came the hazmat suits. Shoppers had to drop their shoe racks and
evacuate the building.

The runners' attorney, Michael Jefferson (pictured above), contends the
charges were unwarranted because his clients had no intent to spark such a
scare.

After the incident, the city police department submitted a letter to court
asking for $4,100 in restitution for the cost incurred by fire and police
response. By the time Daniel Salchow appeared in court Friday, the city had
agreed that restitution wouldn't make sense.

Instead of paying back the city in money, the runners are crafting a plan
to "convert" the unfortunate incident into something positive for the city,
said Daniel Salchow, who paced through the lobby of New Haven Superior
Court Friday in a bow tie and plaid jacket.

Salchow, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Yale-New Haven Hospital, said he
still "cannot believe" the way the city and state responded to his
"innocent" game. His sister was amid a five-day visit from Germany on Aug.
23 when they sprinkled down a route for fellow Hash House Harriers through
New Haven streets.

Salchow had laid down courses like this all over the world, from Australia
to Thailand. A diehard "hasher," he met his wife at a New York race. They
hashed at their wedding. They hashed on their honeymoon. In the short two
months after arriving in New Haven this summer, they had already set up a
hashing club and arranged four races. Races follow a series of
unpredictable turns to an undisclosed final destination, often a pub or
party.

Even in Singapore, where police can fine people for spitting in the street,
no one bothered the joggers as they ran their routes. In Washington, D.C.,
Salchow had "hashed" alongside active military personnel and state
department employees, right past the Iraqi and Israeli embassies, he said.
What happened in New Haven was "hard to understand," recalled Salchow
Friday, awaiting his appearance in court. (His sister, Dorothee, had flown
home to Germany, where she practices law).

He had been in New Haven for only a couple months on the day he saw IKEA
alight with Hazmat suits and whisperings of anthrax. When he found out what
had happened, he tried to explain to police.

"Look guys, do you want me to eat it?" he asked safety officials. It was
the same flour his wife had used to bake a cake a few days ago. "Let me
clean it up -- I'll get my broom," he insisted.

"No, no, no" came the reply.

Salchow argues New Haven cops should have known better: Even the FBI was
aware of the situation, posting an advisement in 2001 that "the first
probability to be considered is that a 'trail' of handfuls of white powder
is probably associated with a local jogging group," not an anthrax attack.

Safety officials told the Salchows they should have known better before
laying down the powder.

"They acted irresponsibly in doing something they knew could have instilled
fear," charged mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga Friday. "They made no
effort to make us aware" of the purpose of their powdery activities.

Salchow dismissed the idea. "What, you have to call police every time you
want to run?" He asked incredulously. "Anytime you draw something, are you
going to be arrested? If you drop flour from your shopping bag, are you
going to be arrested? The implications for privacy and safety are just
immense."

Jefferson called the public safety response a grand "overreaction." When a
similar incident set off a scare outside a Chicago zoo in 2002, officials
settled the affair at the scene. "I find it unbelievable that the state
remains committed to prosecuting these individuals for engaging in an
innocent activity."

Mayorga defended officers' choice of a felony charge and called the
reaction "appropriate."

Punishment, however, is now up to the state, which has not dropped the
felony charge. The state's prosecutor, David Strollo, could no be reached
for comment Friday.

Meanwhile, Jefferson was pleased to hear that the city will not be seeking
restitution. Instead, he and his client hope to set up a fund raiser in
collaboration with IKEA and the city.

Salchow's vision? A House Hash Harriers benefit race, open to the public,
set in New Haven. The route would be set through city sidewalks and parks.
It would bring suburbanites to "appreciate" urban New Haven, introduce
people to the joys of hashing, and raise money for the Hill Health Center,
whose clients Salchow treats.

"I am very pleased to hear the city is thinking along the same lines," said
the doctor, leaving court after his case was heard, continued until October
5.

Mayorga said the mayor's goal had been for the Salchows to perform 50 hours
of community service. She welcomed the hashing fund raiser idea: "If the
residents can benefit, I think we can all move forward on a good note."

Wow

Looks like I missed some serious excitement.