We reached out to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council and the town of Middletown for comment. CRMC said they were looking into the status of the right-of-way. The town did not respond.
TRANSCRIPT:
Randy Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Get off my property. Get off my property.
Cheyne Cousens [from TikTok video]: Let the cops come and tell me what’s going on. You’re lying to me, bro. It says shoreline public access right there on a sign. You’re not going to call?
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Get off my property.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: Call the cops.
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Get the f— out of here.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: Call the cops, bro.
Luis Hernandez: That’s sound from a confrontation between a beachgoer and Middletown property owner recorded last week. It’s since gone viral on TikTok, drawing over seven million views at last count. The man recording the exchange is Cheyne Cousens. He was trying to get to a beach area at the end of a state-designated right-of-way to the Easton Bay shoreline, but he ended up getting charged with trespassing instead. Cousens met up with our South County Bureau Reporter Alex Nunes at the site of the confrontation to explain what happened.
Cousens: I came down on my e-bike just looking for a spot to jump in the water. On the stop sign here there’s a sign that says coastal beach access or public beach access. So I walked along the grass here looking for that access and ran into these bushes right by the water, looked to my right and there’s a set of stairs that lead down to the beach. So I walked over to that set of stairs, there was a chain blocking the stairs, and a sign that says no public beach access, private property. Somebody kind of came up behind me, when I turned around it was a gentleman, asked me if I needed any help, and telling me that it’s private property and that I needed to get off the property.
Alex Nunes: And then you and this guy had an exchange from there.
Cousens: Yeah.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: I don’t even know who you are.
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: I’m the landowner.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: That’s what you’re saying. How do I f— know that? It says public access right there, dude. You could just be some rich d— who wants to f— with me.
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: I am a rich d— and I am f— with you.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: Yes, you are. Yes, you are. I know. [laughs]
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Get off my f— property, j—.
Nunes: You had some interesting chemistry with each other?
Cousens: Yeah, yeah, I felt that he was being pretty aggressive and hostile right from the start, and that, you know, it was a misunderstanding with me ending up on the property. And it appeared to me that this was the public right-of-way. So I basically told him to call the police so that they could come and settle it.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: This is so cool that I like caught you saying all this stuff on camera.
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Yeah, it’s so cool.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: It is for me.
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: You’re a real a—.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: You’re an a—
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: What’s your name? You’re trespassing on my property.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: Dude, go f— sit back on your porch. What do you so–
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Get off my land. It’s what I’m asking you nicely. If it’s recorded, tell the j— to get off property. He should respect private property. It even says a sign, private property. Why don’t you film that one? Right there.
Cousens [from TikTok video]: Already filmed it, dude.
Rauchle [from TikTok video]: Good. Now get the f— out of here.
Nunes: So eventually the police were called and you were charged with willful trespass?
Cousens: Yeah, yeah, I actually left, left that day, didn’t see the police arrive, waited around for a few minutes and assumed that he just said he was calling them to scare me off. So I took off, and then came back the next day, stayed off the property and just took a photo of the bushes blocking the right-of-way. And then at that time the police arrived. And yeah, basically the long story short is I was arrested for trespassing.
Nunes: So it turns out that he was right, and that is his property across the street from his home. Have you reached out to him to apologize or talk again or anything like that?
Cousens: No, I have not reached out to him directly.
Nunes: So even though, you know it did turn out to be his property, the fact that it’s a state Coastal Resources Management Council right-of-way that should be protected, but at the end of it you have prickers and bushes and no stairwell to get down this pretty steep cliff – that kind of points to, you know, a bigger problem with these rights-of-way in the state where access exists on paper, but then when you go here it’s not really here.
Cousens: Yeah. I wouldn’t have ended up on that property or in this dispute with this property owner had this public access been open. So yeah, I feel like I was sort of directed onto this property due to the access being blocked. And yeah, it would be nice to see this open and accessible so things like this can be avoided in the future.
Nunes: Have you reached out to the state or the town about getting this cleaned up and getting some stairs in here?
Cousens: Not yet. But that is the plan to go forward and do that and yeah, see some change here in the neighborhood.
Nunes: All right. Thanks for talking to me, Cheyne. Thank you.
