Posted on 03/31/2004 8:40:03 PM PST by CedarDave
LAS CRUCES— It took three tries, but embattled Catron County rancher Kit Laney on Tuesday finally won release from jail pending his trial on federal assault and obstruction of justice charges.Senior U.S. District Judge John Edwards Conway granted a defense motion to release Laney into the custody of Otero Mesa rancher Bob Jones, but it won't happen until next week when a court-ordered roundup of the rancher's cattle will be roughly 95 percent complete. Jones' ranch is more than a five-hour drive east of the Diamond Bar allotment in the Gila National Forest. Laney will be released at 9 a.m. April 8.
Laney was arrested March 14 after he allegedly charged his horse at several Forest Service officers who were guarding the rancher's impounded cattle at the MeOwn Fire Base. A grand jury last week returned an eight-count indictment charging Laney with two counts of obstruction of justice, five counts of assaulting and interfering with federal officers, and one count of interfering with a court order.
The Forest Service since early March has rounded up 415 of Laney's livestock pursuant to a federal court order that found the rancher in contempt of court for grazing his livestock on the Diamond Bar allotment without a Forest Service permit.
''Let me tell you,'' Conway said to Laney, ''you foul up and marshals will be all over you like you can't believe. Don't leave Bob Jones' ranch. You just don't want to foul up, because it will be bad.'' ''I give you my word that I won't,'' Kit Laney said.
Conway's decision came after an appeal of two earlier rulings by U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen. Molzen twice refused to release Laney from Doña Ana County Detention Center because of her concern he would try to return to the Gila National Forest and disrupt the roundup.
Despite expressing concerns that Laney ''just kind of thumbs his nose'' at federal judges, Conway said he knew and trusted Jones, the man defense counsel proposed Laney be released to. Laney will wear an electronic surveillance device and will not be permitted to leave Jones' ranch or drive any vehicles. Conway noted during the hearing that he once represented Jones when he was a private attorney working in Alamogordo, but assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Wormuth did not object to Conway ruling on the case.
Conway scheduled Laney's trial for May 3 in Albuquerque.
In a related matter, an attorney for Laney and his ex-wife and ongoing ranching partner, Sherry Farr, will seek an injunction in state district court in Alamogordo to halt the Forest Service's sale of the impounded cattle. Laney and Farr argue that a memorandum of understanding, signed by the state Livestock Board executive director with the Forest Service, to permit the sale of Laney's cattle is invalid, because it was not approved by the full Livestock Board.
The Forest Service announced that on Thursday it will end the temporary closure of the 147,000-acre Diamond Bar allotment. The allotment was closed to the public during the cattle impoundment.
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
It sounds as if the Forest Service types were looking for any incident to send him to jail. Maybe he shouldn't have interfered, but when you see your livelihood being taken from you, many of us might do the same thing.
If you are talking about people farming and ranching on taxpayer owned property I don't consider you to have any rights other than those expressly granted to you in writing by us taxpayers.
If you don't like our rules get off our land.
When you know in your heart that you are RIGHT, what else do you do? Bend over and take it? Just a small man, in a small town, actually standing up for himself knowing full well it is a losing battle...
Written (then re-written) by faceless appointed bureaucrats who GRANT RIGHTS for taxpayers.
Why do you feel that you are above the law and untouchable by the Federal Courts?
Attacking a law enforcement officer (rather by horse or foot) is a serious criminal act.
Why do you believe that you have some special right to disobey an order of a Federal Court?
How many generations of living off of government land does it take to imbue a family with a sense of royalty.
Perhaps its time for land reform in America.
So the man is being fined 415 head of cattle for letting his herd graze on public land????
The Forest Service has a beam in their eye, and another should be shoved up their you-know-what.
This is a government theft of private property as far as I'm concerned.
It's called "rule by fear and intimidation". Once the preserve of tyrannical regimes, it now seems to be common practice in (largely unconstitutional) Federal law enforcement.
You really don't get it. The environmental wackos in the Forest Service, Park Service, et al don't think of it as "our"land, they think of it as their land and would keep you off of it too, if they could. Believe me, they try to close our lands down every chance they get. We, and that includes ranchers should be allowed to use our land, so long as we don't damage it. Reasonable fees are okay but get the zelots out of the Forest Service.
You're confused.
It's not 'taxpayer owned' land; the ranchers have patent title to the water, surface, and grazing rights. The 'taxpayers' only own the remaining rights, if any. Grazing is very beneficial to the land, and beneficial to the 'taxpayers' too. There is no better source of food than range-fed beef, if you wish to live a long life; if not, go vegan and die young.
It's not even "public land." It's what is called "split estate" land, where the rancher has patent title to the water and surface rights such as graging, and transportation, and the public may own subsurface rights. Unless he dug a hole more than 500 feet deep, he could not have entered the 'public' portion of the land.
Until they can find a reason to restrict it permanently, thus denying use to the "taxpayer/owner".
Thanks for the ping.
Far freepin' out ... I own ranch land!
Cattle too?
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