Posted on 01/31/2006 1:23:08 PM PST by Irontank
Two immigrants are now the legal owners of a Douglas-area ranch seized from an anti-immigrant activist. Documents granting the 70-acre ranch once owned by Casey Nethercott to Fatima del Socorro Leiva Medina and Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales were signed by a Cochise County judge on Monday.
Nethercott is serving a five-year prison term in Texas stemming from a 2003 incident on a Texas ranch where he confronted Leiva and Mancia and was accused of pistol-whipping them. He was acquitted of assault but convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Nethercott was a member of the group Ranch Rescue, which works to protect private property along the southern U.S. border.
The Southern Poverty Law Center brought suit against Nethercott on behalf of the two immigrants. Nethercott did not respond and a Texas judge ordered him to pay $500,000.
Also named in the suit were Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue and the owners of the Texas ranch, Joe and Betty Sutton.
The Suttons settled for $100,000. Foote also didn't offer a defense and was ordered to pay $500,000. Leiva and Mancia were illegal immigrants from El Salvador. They received temporary legal status in the United States as crime victims and are seeking visas to stay longer.
They don't plan to hold on to the ranch, said Kelley Bruner, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Instead the property will be sold, with the proceeds going to the immigrants
I know my own neigborhood. It is being overrun and one cannot go down Yonkers Avenue in the morning without literally a parade of illegals akin to the Macy's day parade. It was never ever like this under Clintigula.
Because the RATS are suicide does not make the slow death the GOP offers that much better.
They want fresh hispanics because once they have been here a while, become members of gangs, etc., they are no longer as employable thus a larger and larger demand for "new blood."
However, the way I've read this story these illegals got the ranch through the legal system and I'm not certain the President had anything to do with that other than his encouragement for the illegals to come here in the first place (which I am upset about)...
Unless they changed the law an American Citizen can't purchase land in Mexico, we can lease it and they can take it away at any time they want -- and they do after people go down there and fix it up with nice homes.
Its about the Climate. The Climate is such that illegals have nothing to fear, but everything to gain by being here illegally.
This Climate, in my opionion, was bad under Cigar Boy, but made 100000000000000% worse under GWB.
I wouldn't want to insure the farm, the new owners or the judge................
Agreed.
Not entering a defense is to guarantee that you'll lose. I don't know what he was thinking.
Absolutely DISgraceful!!!I don't condone Nethercott pistol-whipping these people if, in fact, he did, but taking a 70 acre ranch and giving it to criminals is not only wrong, it violates a principle foundation of the law. That principle is that if both parties in a dispute have "dirty hands" (in other words, both parties don't have a legally valid position - BOTH are wrong), there is no settlement and everyone walks away taking what they came to court with.
This judge is the reason that the concept of law and justice in America is becoming a leftist-inspired joke.
I'm sure they'll work the farm and become tax paying good American's...(liberal view)
REALITY...they sell the farm and move back to Mexico with the settlement and profits from the farm
Doogle
That I agree with and right now I would vote for Tom Tancredo or JD Hayworth for President because both of them get it... problem is: where would they get the money to run?
Unbelievable. Well, not really..
They said he was in jail and couldn't??? That part doesn't make sense to me.
or, they'll use it as a half-way station for more illegal immigrants.
There's not much right about this story in any regard, but 70 acres sure as hell ain't no "Ranch".
It's a state court, so no.
This is the liberal version of justice.
I don't see that he couldn't respond to the suit, only that he didn't. What did he expect the judge to do when someone ignores a lawsuit?
What a joke. Let's assume they were in fact pistol whipped. What would they be entitled to? Medical Bills? Pain & Suffering? Max that should be 50K?
How does that translate into them getting the ranch and not just getting a judgement against the guy personally?
This is outright theft!
That's just what happened - they got a judgment against him, since he didn't respond to the suit. I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think it's uncommon for property to be seized and distributed to fulfill such a judgment.
What I wondered is why this guy rolled over and didn't take this to a higher court? Something isn't quite right with the whole story.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.