On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered
the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the
family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on
parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8
PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite
traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by
another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The
Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called
Manna Storehouse on the western side of
the greater Cleveland area for many years.
There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of
them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly
supicious-looking Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that
lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area
in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search
warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not
told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their
rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the
family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their
computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and
contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was
no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation
of Constitutional rights.
Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a
retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type
interrogation for a 3^rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has
raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation
and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply.
SWAT Team Like Radio by Ohio authorities on a farm house in LaGange
Ohio authorities stormed a farm house in LaGange Monday, December 1, to execute a search warrant, holding the Jacqueline and John Stowers and their son and young grandchildren at gunpoint for nine hours. During the raid the Ohio Department of Agriculture and police confiscated over ten thousand dollars worth of food, computers and cell phones. The Stowers’ crime? They run a private, members-only food co-op.
While state authorities were looking for evidence of illegal activities, the family was not informed what crime they were suspected of, they were not read their rights or allowed to make a phone call. The children, some as young as toddlers, were traumatized by armed officers interrogating the adults with guns drawn.
The Morning Journal, a newspaper serving northern Ohio, reported that the Stowers were believed to be operating without a license. However, the Stowers claim that the food co-op they run does not engage in any activities that would require state licensing.
Friends of the Stowers openly question why such aggressive tactics were necessary to investigate a licensing complaint.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has apparently been chastised by the courts in previous cases for over-reach, including entrapment of an Amish man to sell raw milk, which backfired, when it became known that the man gave milk instead of selling it to a state undercover agent, refusing to take money for what he believed to be a charitable act. The Amish literally interpret the Gospel of Matthew (5:42) to “give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”
The matter has been forwarded to the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office and the Lorain County General Health District according to Lorain County court records.
Subject: SWAT TEAM CONDUCTS FOOD RAID IN RURAL OHIO 
Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:45 pm
