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By Connie Leinbach
An NCDOT Ferry Division supervisor has been charged with trespassing on one of his staffer’s property.
In a complaint filed Oct. 5 with the Hyde County Sheriff’s Office, Harry B. Clark IV, a ferry crew member II, charged that his supervisor at the time, Herbert Allen Bliven Jr., at around 10:15 a.m. Oct. 4, walked into his Swan Quarter home uninvited.
At that time, Clark’s sister, Jerri Ann Wiseman of Belhaven, was babysitting Clark’s child.
Bliven was charged with breaking and entering, according to records from the district court and a hearing scheduled for Jan. 11 was continued until March 1.
Wiseman, in her statement to the Hyde County sheriff, said “a man entered my brother’s (Harry Clark) residence without permission.”
She heard the dogs barking and looked out of the house to see the back-end of a truck.
“As I picked up my niece and rounded the corner to the kitchen, there this guy stands,” the complaint says. “He asked where Harry was; I then told him and he left without telling me who or what he wanted.”
Wiseman’s statement said Bliven “entered through three different doors (sic) to get into my home.”
Bliven never gave his name, looked surprised and then left.
Wiseman then called Clark to tell him “a man had entered the house without knocking.”
Clark’s statement says Bliven at the time was his supervisor on the Swan Quarter ferry run.
Tim Hass, Ferry Division spokesman, said Bliven, who was a ferry operations manager II when this incident occurred, was reassigned Nov. 3 to facilities and maintenance at Hatteras and at the shipyard.
Hass said the Ferry Division follows the policy of the N.C. Office of State Human Resources regarding disciplinary action for misconduct and criminal behavior, whether misdemeanors or felonies.
“An employee is not suspended pending adjudication of a criminal offense,” Hass said.
As to why Bliven entered Clark’s house, Hass said it would not be proper for the division to speculate on that question.