James R. Pinell was charged with one count of criminal mischief, a third-degree misdemeanor. He is scheduled to appear in Lebanon Municipal Court for arraignment Thursday.
The same thing happened in 2012 outside the building at 1975 U.S. 42., but this time, the building had a security camera that recorded the dumping of the mountain of manure just after midnight on Saturday.
Asked about his actions, Pinell told this news outlet that he is “fed up with Democratic party” and dumped the manure this weekend as a retaliation “for all the garbage they’ve been putting out on us.”
“I think what they’ve done, more or less, to the country by having partial-birth abortions and just … the emails and everything, I just feel like half the country, we’ve just had enough of it,” he said.
Pinell has no official party affiliation as there is no record of him voting in a primary, much like the majority of voters, according to officials with the Warren County Board of Elections.
Warren County Republican Party Chairman Jeff Monroe said Pinell is unaffiliated with the party in any way and labeled his actions “shenanigans” and distracting from what the GOP needs to be doing.
“For the party, we’re in the business of winning elections and to do that, we need people to focus on the issues on hand, not necessarily these kinds of actions that are kind of rogue and away from the party’s main objective,” Monroe said.
Bethe Goldenfield, chairwoman of the Warren County Democratic Party, called the incident “a minor inconvenience.”
“Yes, it’s a distraction, maybe and … a disappointment, but the tenor of this campaign cycle, even though it happened before, it’s even more heightened,” Goldenfield said.
“We’re focused on mining every voter that we can and get them to the polls and get them to vote for Hillary Clinton and the other candidates down the ballot.”
Pinell said this isn’t the first time he’s carried out such an act. He said the first time he dumped the manure at party headquarters was because of his opposition to Obamacare and abortion.
Pinell said
he obtained the manure from a farm down the street.
Paying the fine is worth it, he said.
Asked if his actions sent the right message, Pinell downplayed the dumping.
“It is just manure,” he said. “It was a cheap way to get the country’s attention, more or less.”
He didn’t expect the incident to get so much attention but said he stands by what he did.
“People run their mouths all they want and cry or whine a river, but I did what I did and I’ll do it again and watch your mouths,” he said.
Goldenfield said the county’s Democratic party is not discouraged and remains “pretty resilient.”
“I mean, we are a 30-70 county with a very strong Republican presence and one-party rule, so we’re used to a little bit of adversity,” she said.
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