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TUPPER LAKE - A Tupper Lake man claims that a state park policeman threw a flashlight at him as he rode his snowmobile Saturday night, injuring his left arm, and he plans to sue.

Eric Fortier said he went to the hospital after having the approximately 16-inch Mag light thrown at him. Lawyer Peter Dumas, of Malone, will represent him in his lawsuit.

Fortier has been prescribed percocet, and that his injury make it impossible for him to do his mechanic's job at Fuller Tim Trucking, he says. Monday afternoon, he described his arm and fingers as feeling numb from the elbow down.

He said the officers said he hadn't stopped; Fortier said he replied they hadn't asked him to.

"They didn't try to ID (themselves)," Fortier said. "I didn't even see them until I turned around and came back."

The officer who admitted, after a confrontation, to having thrown the flashlight, according to Fortier, apologized, saying he had used "bad judgment" and "got excited in the heat of the moment."

Fortier said they refused to give their names at the scene.

Park police fall under the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Among other functions, they help other agencies, such as state Environmental Conservation police and state police, with snowmobile safety education and law enforcement.

Officers in this area would fall under the command of the Thousand Islands region, headquartered in Alexandria Bay. A call to the regional headquarters Tuesday seeking comment was not returned by press time.

Fortier said he was on his way home between 9 and 9:30 p.m., coming down the Haymeadow Trail toward Little Wolf Pond. He said he was wearing long johns, two sweaters and a Carhartt jacket that night. Although there is sometimes a checkpoint on the lake, Fortier said he didn't see any police or lights.

Shortly before the lake, Fortier said he felt a sharp pain in his arm.

"I thought somebody had shot me in the arm, or thrown a rock at me or something," Fortier said Monday afternoon.

The pain soon got so bad, Fortier said, that he had to stop, and turned back to see what he could see. As he went back up the trail, he soon saw two Park police officers walking toward their snowmobiles.

Fortier said he asked them if they had thrown anything at him; they denied it. At one point, Fortier said, the confrontation turned physical and he grabbed the policeman with the flashlight, asking "Is this what you threw at me?" The other policeman stood back, Fortier said.

Fortier said he went to the village police station that night to complain, and also stopped a state trooper who was getting gas at Stewart's; both told him to take his complaint to park police.

Village police Sgt. Eric Proulx confirmed that Fortier stopped at the police station some time before midnight Saturday, and was told he would need to file a personnel complaint with the agency, as police don't handle investigations of other departments. Also, the alleged incident happened outside the village line.

Fortier said he went to the emergency room at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, where he was X-rayed twice and prescribed percocet.

On Monday, Fortier visited Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Jack Delehanty to find out how to file a complaint against a park policeman. He was accompanied by Rick Reandeau, who lives on Little Wolf Pond.

"I told those fellows we don't investigate complaints against the police," Delehanty said. "That's normally done by internal affairs of the respective police agency."

Delehanty provided them with two telephone numbers. Delehanty described Reandeau as "extremely agitated," and Fortier as "quite calm."

"(Reandeau) complained yesterday he's been stopped repeatedly by Park police," Delehanty said Tuesday. "I told him New York State Park Police are one of the agencies charged with enforcement of snowmobile law. That's what they do, they train other law-enforcement agencies in snowmobile enforcement."

Reandeau lives near Little Wolf Pond, and he and his family snowmobile in that area frequently. When interviewed Monday, Reandeau said what happened to Fortier worried him, not only for Fortier but because many families snowmobile in that area every day.

"Can you imagine the damage it would have done to a 14-year-old's arm instead of an adult?" Reandeau said.

Both Fortier and Reandeau said they have seen people stopped and checked this year in business parking lots, often on Main Street, near the railroad tracks, where a number of the businesses are close to snowmobile trails and are frequented by snowmobilers.

Fortier says he tries to snowmobile whenever the weather permits, which has been most days lately. He said he has been stopped about 10 times so far this year, including in the parking lots of the Lumberjack Inn and Mobil.

"Law enforcement needs to stop harassing all the snowmobilers in this community," Reandeau said. "It discourages snowmobilers to come to our town, and hurts all of us as a community financially."

Reandeau, who co-owned the snowmobile shop Adirondack Machines until this month, said he frequently used to hear customers "complaining about being stopped every time they come into town."

Jim Larkin, who owns the gas station and deli Larkin Enterprises, on Main Street, with his wife Sheila, said snowmobilers are a vital part of the local winter economy and of their business's sales, a part which, he said, has declined this year due to the increased police presence.

"As a business owner, it's important to us to have them," Larkin said. "We have to get a solution to this problem so they're not harassed and they want to come here."

Sheila Larkin said the community, snowmobilers and government agencies need to work together to encourage snowmobiling and tap its economic benefits the way communities like Old Forge have.

"We should be as busy as those areas in the winter time," Sheila Larkin said. "Somehow, we're missing it."

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has not assigned any more officers to enforcement in the Tupper Lake area than previously, spokesman David Winchell said Monday. He said DEC's main jurisdiction is on state land, although they assist other agencies if requested.

Winchell also said an increase or decrease in the number of tickets doesn't necessarily reflect greater or lesser enforcement effort, giving the example of a recent checkpoint on Goldsmith Road in the town of Franklin that stopped a great number of riders but found very few violations.

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Contact Nathan Brown at 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.