NORFOLK, Va. – A retired general is suing the Gloucester (Va.) County sheriff in federal court alleging that by allowing hunters and their dogs to enter his property without penalty despite “no trespassing” signage, the sheriff is violating the Fifth and 14th amendments.
The complaint filed this month in the Eastern District of Virginia points to repeated instances since 2020 in which hunting dogs have ventured onto the roughly 80-acre, partially fenced property owned by Billy Don Farris II in Gloucester’s Ware Neck area, leading to incidents including a dog peeing on someone’s clothes during a family event and multiple confrontations with hunters. Farris says he has attempted to resolve the issue in discussions with Sheriff Darrell Warren over the years but has been told law enforcement can’t intervene unless the hunters intentionally released their dogs onto his property.
By taking the position that Farris could be charged with a crime for telling hunters to cease and desist, the lawsuit argues Warren’s policy amounts to “an unconstitutional taking of Mr. Farris’s property under the Fifth and 14th amendments.” The Fifth Amendment protects citizens from private property being taken for public use without compensation, and the 14th Amendment protects against being deprived of property without due process…