License Suspension and Bigfoot
During our years of bigfoot research North America Bigfoot Search NABS) has heard many stories regarding the governments involvement in the topic. In “The Hoopa Project” we copied a United States government document from the Army Corps of Engineers that talks about bigfoot living in the forests of Washington. There were also citations in the book about the FBI conducting hair analysis on purported bigfoot hair, again, all written in a government document.
In the last month a series of claims were made on Linda Newton Perry’s site about the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles becoming involved in bigfoot sightings. The claim was made that people who observed a bigfoot and subsequently reported the sighting to an Oregon police department would have their license suspended. Since many of us in NABS are current and former police officers this information was deeply disturbing. Let’s clarify the authority police officers have in California. If we observe someone driving and is under some type of physical impairment (physical impairment) we can sent a special notice to DMV requesting that the driver go through a new drivers test with an official to prove they can still operate a vehicle safely. If a medical doctor is treating a person who is having fainting spells or blackouts, they are required by law to notify DMV, subsequently, the person’s license will be suspended until the fainting spells are under control. We know of no authority that allows officers in California to recommend suspension of a license based on the driver making an observation and subsequent report. Example, seeing things or thinking you are seeing things is not necessarily a rationale to suspend a license.
An individual on Ms. Perry’s site made mention of Oregon DMV form 4423 and that this form was utilized to suspend licenses. The Oregon DMV stated that a form of that number does not exist in their system, but, that may be a law enforcement form utilized by an agency that they numbered. Form 6066 is utilized by Oregon DMV to document license suspension issues.
The Oregon DMV issue was of critical importance to NABS so we decided to spend the day investigating the issue. After a series of phone calls, we were able to contact the Oregon DMV’s Public Information Officer, David House. David is the point person for the public and media that have questions about anything inside the Oregon DMV. NABS explained the issue in great detail to David and inquired if Oregon DMV had a practice of suspending licenses of drivers who reported a bigfoot or sasquatch sighting? David stated that the law in Oregon appears to mimic the law in California. The intent of the law is to control physical impairment, not mental issues. If a driver has issues controlling their vehicle a law enforcement officer can request re-testing. If someone is severely mentally disabled the DMV sends the officers statement to the DMV’s “Medical Program Coordinator” (MPC). The MPC evaluates the requests and then can send a notification to a driver requesting that they obtain a medical clearance from a psychologist or psychiatrist. This ISN’T their (DMV’s) doctor, this is a doctor of the drivers choosing. If the doctor evaluates the driver and determines they are medically unfit to drive, they can recommend suspension. Again, this would be a doctor of the drivers choosing that would make the recommendation.
I asked Mr. House if he could check with the MPC and determine how many times in the last several years a bigfoot or sasquatch sighting has been the catalyst listed by the police officer as a reason for suspension, he stated he would check into it and contact us later in the day. Four hours later Mr. House did call NABS. Mr. House stated that he contacted the supervisor of the MPC and she then contacted each of the three subordinates that review cases. Never in the history of Oregon DMV has a bigfoot or sasquatch sighting been listed as a reason for license suspension, according to Mr. House. Mr. House did state that possibly the police officers listed the bigfoot or sasquatch in their report and did not forward that information to DMV, but he thought that wouldn’t be valuable as all information is needed in the report to authorize a medical evaluation. He further stated that if a bigfoot or sasquatch sighting was the catalyst for the suspension and it wasn’t listed in the documents sent to DMV, what would the officer list as the rationale to suspend the license?
So, to clarify the issue of drivers licenses being suspended in Oregon because of a bigfoot or sasquatch sighting, the official response from the Public Information Officer is NEVER. If there is a license suspended the driver has a right to an administrative law hearing. The driver can go alone or with an attorney, they are informal as many of us in NABS have attended them over drunk driving arrests and subsequent suspension of the arrestees license. The administrative law judge sits as an impartial party and makes a decision as to the outcome of the evidence. There is a stenographer in the room and everything stated is documented.
NABS would recommend that any driver in Oregon who is faced with suspension over a bigfoot sighting to get the stenographers documented and certified notes, they will show why the license suspension was upheld and validate your claim.
It would seem that Mr. House knows that drivers with licenses suspended could easily prove why they were suspended via the stenographers and attorney’s notes and he knows he would be challenged if he lied, so, we wouldn’t understand why he would. He also knows that he is gauged by the media and public contacts as to his honesty, so we doubt that he would lie under the scenario of our interview. There may be isolated incidents where a local small town police officer didn’t report the issue to DMV regarding a bigfoot sighting, but, if that happened, DMV would surely hear about it at the hearing stage from the driver. It’s an interesting issue and you’ve just been privy to the DMV response.
NABS
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