Thumbnail photo: Roger Gitlin (left) and Dan Schmidt (right) Crescent City Harbor Commissioner Dan Schmidt was ready to go to jail for trespassing at Roger Gitlin’s house on Wednesday. Schmidt, who last month bought the Del Norte Triplicate from Country Media, Gitlin’s previous employer, wanted to hand over his rebuttal to a now-rescinded recall effort against him. Gitlin wouldn’t answer the door, so Schmidt stayed on the porch for about half an hour knocking and ringing the bell. “I guess Roger got tired of me being there so he called the police to have me arrested for trespassing,” Schmidt told Redwood Voice Community News on Sunday. He said the officer who responded gave him the choice of leaving or being arrested. “I said I’ll leave, but I want to be arrested, so he cited and released me with a promise to appear and that was the end of it. I was ready to go downtown in handcuffs and get booked, fingerprinted, I was ready for that, but the cop decided to handle it informally,” Schmidt said. The Crescent City Police Department responded to the 200 block of Lighthouse Way at about 6:17 p.m. Wednesday to facilitate a citizen's arrest. Gitlin made the arrest and the officer facilitated it by citing Schmidt and releasing him at the scene, Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin said. “Technically we could have made this arrest ourselves, but Roger said he wanted to make it a citizen's arrest and Mr. Schmidt refused to leave,” Griffin said. “There’s no reason to take him to jail at that point. We know who he is. He would have been booked and released from jail. It was a technical arrest — he was cited in the field and there was no reason to transport him to jail.” Gitlin, a former Del Norte County supervisor and the Triplicate’s editor up until Sept. 17, served both Schmidt and his colleague, Annie Nehmer, with a notice of intent to recall them from the Harbor District board at an Oct. 8 meeting. Gitlin alleges that Schmidt, who he had been friendly with up until a few months ago, is promoting nepotism by trying to get his colleagues to hire his brother, Dennis. Meanwhile, Nehmer, according to Gitlin, is costing the Harbor District $55,000 in legal fees, though CCHD officials have said they’re not sure where that figure comes from. Schmidt said he had seven days to respond to Gitlin’s notice and, though he acknowledged he could have hired a process server, he was up against a deadline when he knocked on his former friend’s front door. Gitlin said he had paused his recall effort and rescinded the paperwork by that time. He had guests over for dinner and Schmidt had left and come back and rang the doorbell between six and 10 times by the time he called the police. Gitlin said Schmidt has also been knocking on the doors of those who signed on as proponents to the recall effort, though it’s now paused. “I’ve received numerous calls of him actually knocking on people’s doors in the evening and trying to change their minds,” Gitlin told Redwood Voice. “That’s clearly voter intimidation.” If the recall were active, Schmidt would have been required to submit his rebuttal to any one of the proponents within a week of being served, Del Norte County Clerk Alissia Northrup said. He could have done so either through a certified letter so he has proof that he responded or in person. Schmidt also published Gitlin’s notice of intent to recall both himself and Nehmer in the latest edition of the Triplicate, along with the signatures and addresses of the proponents. According to Northrup, for a recall effort to be valid, the leaders have to publish, and pay, for a notice in the county’s newspaper of record. But Gitlin said he hadn’t done that, she told Redwood Voice. “Without publication, and not from the person that’s being recalled, it just dies basically,” Northrup said of the recall effort. “All the first step is, is a notice of intent. You’re noticing the individual that you’re intending to recall them. Even if he published it, if (Gitlin) didn’t get going on the signatures, it would die.” However, as unnecessary as it might have been, Schmidt’s knocking on the doors of those who signed on as proponents to the notice of intent to recall isn’t voter intimidation, Northrup said. “In this sense, they’re not voters, they’re proponents of a recall,” she said. “It’s not like he’s going and saying if you vote yes on this … and even then he would have the right to go door to door and talk to voters of why they shouldn’t or should (vote) as long as he’s not threatening them or offering something to vote one way or the other.” Crescent City Councilman Jason Greenough and his wife Angela received a visit from Schmidt a few hours before Schmidt knocked on Gitlin’s door on Wednesday. According to Angela Greenough, Schmidt’s visit happened at about 2 p.m. and, though she and her husband weren’t home at the time, they communicated with him via their Ring doorbell camera. “He’s like, ‘I want to talk to Angela. I want to see her,’ and I said ‘you’re talking to her, what's this about?’,” Angela Greenough told Redwood Voice. “He refused to identify himself and I didn’t know who he was at the time, but he was wearing his harbor commissioner hat and had a stack of papers. I said, ‘I think that’s Dan.’” When she and her husband realized it was Schmidt, recognizing him from a photo printed alongside a Redwood Voice article, Angela Greenough said she was sure it was about the recall effort. “(We) found out from others that he had been visiting and calling people about this,” she said. “He knocked on my door on Wednesday and the recall was pulled back so there was no reason for him to be visiting.” Though he notified Redwood Voice on Oct. 10 that Gitlin had rescinded the recall, Schmidt said he didn’t want to take his predecessor at his word that he had, in fact, canceled it. Rather, Schmidt said he wanted to “lock in” the recall and force it to move forward. “… rather than just wait for Roger, how he wanted to best manipulate that process, which is what he was doing, is manipulating the whole process,” Schmidt said. “I think he abused the system to obtain some advantage and I think that needs to be explored.” Gitlin said he withdrew his notice of intent to recall because he didn’t want it to lead to a stand-alone election that would cost the Crescent City Harbor District up to $130,000. Instead, he intends to wait until the recall effort can coincide with the Nov. 1, 2026 midterm election when the cost is between $9,000 and $13,000 per recall. “I’m wanting to do this at a time when it’s less onerous on the Harbor Commission,” Gitlin said. “That’s totally and completely for consideration of the very beleaguered Harbor District…” Schmidt also accused Gitlin of manipulating his colleagues Gerhard Weber and John Evans, who signed on as proponents of the recall, as well as Harbormaster Mike Rademaker, who was one of Gitlin’s guests when Schmidt knocked on his door Wednesday. Rademaker acknowledged that he was present, but said he wasn’t sure what happened once the police arrived, though he estimated that Schmidt was at Gitlin's door for at least 10 minutes Schmidt said he’s scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 14 on trespassing charges and he could face up to six months in the county jail. A former criminal defense attorney, he said he’d be surprised if his case is prosecuted, though the thought of doing jail time as a result of this incident doesn’t phase him. Gitlin, he says, doesn’t scare him “I want him to know this: Roger, I am willing to go to jail to show you that you’re wrong and to stand up for what’s right,” Schmidt said. “And if I’m willing to go to jail, you better be damn certain I’m willing to put your ass in jail too when you screw up.”