A Cherry Valley man was found guilty Tuesday of damaging logging vehicles and equipment, trespassing and making threats during a 2020 incident at a logging operation in Venango Township.

John Allen Snyder, 57, was found guilty in a nonjury trial of nine charges filed by state police following incidents on Sept. 28 and 29 relating to a logging operation on Dean Road.

Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune found Snyder guilty in a trial that lasted one day.

Snyder, who served as his own attorney, said he planned to appeal the decision. He claims he owns the land in question.

Police filed charges against Snyder after a logger working at the site reported Snyder took the keys of a John Deere skid loader on Sept. 28 and threatened workers, according to court documents.

The loader was found partially submerged in a strip pond on the property. Police suspect that Snyder abandoned the loader on a hill above the pond and that a cable attached to the loader broke, thereby allowing the loader to roll into the pond. Inside the loader was a chainsaw and other tools.

Snyder also was charged with scratching the driver’s side door of the other logger's pickup truck and dumping a five-gallon bucket of oil on its hood.

Rodney Bedow Sr., owner of Blue Ox Timber of Titusville in Crawford County, the company that was logging the 156-acre property, testified that he arrived at the scene Sept. 29 to get the loader out of the pond and deliver a replacement. He said he brought additional workers to help retrieve the loader.

Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Simon, Bedow said it cost more than $17,000 to have the loader’s engine and transmission rebuilt, but his insurance covered the expense. He said he paid a $2,000 deductible.

After the loader was removed, workers continued with the logging operation, Bedow said, except for two workers who stayed behind. Those workers later called him and reported that Snyder had returned, and that they called police.

Bedow said he and his son then went to the site to watch it.

“I never left the job for 12 days,” Bedow said. He said he slept in a truck and used generators to power lights to illuminate the site.

Under cross-examination from Snyder, Bedow said a subcontractor’s skid loader was vandalized at the site a week earlier. The subcontractor removed his equipment due to the vandalism, forcing Bedow to use his own equipment, he said.

Trooper Matthew Lesnett testified that he was dispatched to the site Sept. 28 for a report that Snyder had threatened people. He said he and other troopers stopped along Route 38 near the site to plan their approach to the property when Snyder pulled up in a sport utility vehicle. Lesnett said Snyder told him that he drove onto the property and yelled at a couple of people, and that he was given the keys to the loader and he drove it.

Lesnett said Snyder then left, saying he was going to see District Judge Lewis Stoughton at his office in Chicora. The trooper then went to the site, found the loader in the pond and talked to the loggers before he contacted another trooper with instructions to take Snyder into custody at Stoughton’s office.

Trooper David Wellington testified Snyder became agitated when he took him into custody. Snyder said he should have shot the loggers with a scoped rifle and that police would get the same thing if they tried to contact him again, the trooper said.

Trooper Phillip Schneider said he and other troopers were dispatched to the Dean Road site Sept. 29 after workers reported Snyder had returned.

The workers went to a local store before he arrived, so Schneider met them there. Another trooper saw Snyder drive past the store and pulled him over, Schneider said. He said he filed charges against Snyder based on information obtained from workers.

After Assistant DA Simon rested the state’s case, Snyder attempted to call an official from the state attorney general’s office as a witness, but the person wasn’t in court. Snyder said the official had evidence showing the rightful owner of the land.

McCune denied Snyder’s request for a continuance to subpoena the official.

Snyder presented a document that he said proved he owns the property, but Simon objected saying the document refers to a different property. Simon said the land was sold in a tax sale and a 2007 deed identifies the owner.

McCune denied another request from Snyder for a continuance for time to hire an attorney.

In his closing argument, Snyder said he never received a notice about the sale of the property and was not given a chance to remove his large pile of scrap from the property. He said he needed the proceeds from selling the scrap to hire an attorney.

Simon said testimony supported all the charges except a charge of driving with a suspended license that was filed Sept. 29. He withdrew that charge. McCune later found Snyder not guilty of that charge.

McCune found Snyder guilty of charges of terroristic threats, criminal mischief, defiant trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment that were filed in connection with the Sept. 28 incident. He found Snyder guilty of charges of retaliation against a witness or victim, stalking, defiant trespass and harassment that were filed in connection with the Sept. 29 incident. McCune scheduled Snyder to be sentenced May 26.