By Katherine Harmon
The Evening Sun
HANOVER, Pa. — West Manheim Township Police charged an elderly couple with obstructing police and emergency services after they refused to let firefighters through the right of way to fight a dangerous gas leak at a neighbor’s house.
West Manheim Police Chief Tim Hippensteel said the couple Nevin and Miriam Barnhart, both 79, have a 23-year history of ongoing harassment of others using the driveway at 2888 Baltimore Pike, which leads to other properties as well.
But the Barnharts say they never argued with officials, and that the issue was that the truck couldn’t make the turn off Baltimore Pike into the drive without causing damage.
Police and emergency personnel were sent to 2904 Baltimore Pike on Dec. 2 for a reported natural-gas leak. The driveway between the Barnharts’ property and the one next door also serves three residences, including the one with the leak, police said.
Officer Paul Heffner arrived shortly after Pleasant Hill Fire Co. led by Chief Ted Clousher and saw a person standing on the edge of the driveway, according to court documents. Heffner said he recognized the Barnharts from their “history of disorderly and harassing behavior related to this driveway,” and overheard Clousher ordering them to move out of the fire engine’s way.
The couple wouldn’t move, and told officials that they couldn’t enter the private property, Heffner said. Miriam Barnhart said if the fire engine hit or damaged the retaining wall or fence, that she would sue the department, he added.
When the couple still refused to move after Clousher told them they’ve used the drive before to perform emergency services, Heffner began ordering them to get out of the way as well.
Miriam Barnhart sat on the edge of the porch, as Heffner said he continued to order her husband to move. Miriam Barnhart then got back up and grabbed Heffner’s arm as they continued to argue, according to court documents.
Clousher eventually had to find another way to get to the residence, causing a “considerable delay,” according to documents. Engines also had to park farther away from the residence “resulting in a severe tactical disadvantage.”
Police said there was a significant gas leak was inside the home, with dangerously high carbon monoxide levels and low oxygen levels that put a resident and her two children at risk.
The level of gas was near explosive levels, Heffner reported, adding that the “slightest delay in response increased the risk of illness, fire or explosion and death to the residents and those in the area.”
The main gas line had to be shut off, and the home had to remain unoccupied until the leak was repaired.
Heffner said the Barnharts went inside their residence after the engines left, only to return, and when he asked them to go back inside, Nevin Barnhart aggressively said “You can’t tell me what to do on my property,” several times.
The Barnharts were each charged with one count each of obstructing the administration of law, obstructing emergency services, obstructing highways and other public passages, three counts of reckless endangerment and two counts of disorderly conduct.
In the charging documents against the couple, Heffner noted the driveway is a right of way serving many properties, and the Barnharts’ similar conduct in the past has resulted in several criminal charges to which they were found guilty or pleaded guilty.
He added their conduct lacked “any lawful jurisdiction for blocking anyone’s use of the driveway.”
Contacted at their home Wednesday, Miriam Barnhart called the police department’s version of events “a big black-faced lie,” and that she never argued with the chief.
She said she and her husband were in the yard the whole time, and the issue was actually that the fire engines couldn’t make the turn into the drive without damaging the fence and retaining wall.
Miriam Barnhart said the engine actually caused some damage to the fence, and that it would have been worse if they pulled all the way into the drive.
The Barnharts said they will bring pictures and will contest the officer’s statement at a Jan. 20 preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge James S. Miner.
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