Judge Rules Federal Lawsuit Against Trespassing EGLE Wetland Inspectors Can Proceed Forward

For Immediate Release | March 15, 2025
https://olcplc.com/public/media?1742007632

On Wednesday, US District Court Judge Thomas Ludington refused to dismiss a federal lawsuit being pursued against two inspectors from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and can fully proceed forward. The lawsuit, brought by Paul and Prizza Satkowiak, was filed against EGLE "environmental quality analysts" Brian Marshall and Justin Smith last May in Bay City's federal district court. The suit alleges an unannounced April 2024 inspection of their private property in Fraser Township violates the Fourth Amendment.

The lawsuit is one of among a series of federal lawsuits Outside Legal Counsel has brought against government officials who ignore constitutional protections from permissionless warrantless inspections on private property in Michigan.

"We are pleased that the Court has permitted this case to proceed forward," states Philip L. Ellison, the Satkowiaks' attorney. "The lawsuit will now proceed to the evidence-gathering stage where these officials will be required to formally answer questions under oath."

This is not the first the Satkowiaks have had to suffer from EGLE’s improper actions. The long-time owners of a local excavation company are actively and vigorously defending themselves from false allegations made by the state environmental regulatory agency for simply placing dirt and fill on an undeveloped parcel of property in nearby Mount Forest Township. Plans to build a home on the 15-acre property near Rhodes has been thwarted by the lawsuit brought nearly one hundred miles away in a Lansing court where it is alleged that regular farm field soil is what ELGE calls "industrial waste" but is actually nothing more than regular Bay County farm field dirt.

After legally struggling in the Lansing lawsuit, ELGE officials suddenly claimed, as the court recount as, "some unknown person filed a complaint with EGLE that unknown aspects of Plaintiffs’ Property violated unknown provisions of Part 303" regarding the Satkowiaks' seven-acre parcel on M-13 south of Pinconning as containing “potential” wetlands. Environmental Quality Analysts Brian Marshall and Justin Smith conducted a secret unannounced inspection after trespassing across four other private properties to reach a vantage point where no one was allowed access. Neither Marshall nor Smith asked for permission to inspect from the Satkowiaks’ property or first secured a warrant as the Fourth Amendment requires. After conducting the alleged illegal inspection, no violations of state wetlands laws were ever found.

OLC has secured other legal wins against government officials conducting the same type of secret warrantless permissionless searches. More lawsuits are forthcoming.

In Wednesday’s ruling, the federal court in Bay City rejected the government attorney's "three-tiered house of cards" defense they assert as "rest[ing] on a faulty foundation." From Marshall and Smith's own descriptions of their undertaken inspection, they trespass where they had no right to be, including invading neighboring private properties.

Ellison has asked the federal court to formally recognize what the EGLE analysts did as an illegal "vantage point search" and, when done without a warrant, violates the Fourth Amendment.

With the government officials' motion to dismiss denied, the case will now go on to be heard on the merits. A trial date has not been set.

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