Warrant issued in South Park bison killings

denver post ^ | may 8, 2008 | howard pankratz

[MtnClimber]

An arrest warrant has been issued for Austin, Texas, businessman Jeffrey Scott Hawn in connection with the shooting of 32 bison in Park County in March.

The warrant says Hawn is wanted on one count of felony theft, one count of felony criminal mischief and 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, a Class 6 felony.

The bison were shot and killed on private ranches and state and federal lands about 15 miles southeast of Hartsel.

At the time of the shootings, Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said his deputies had never seen anything like it.

"There are just hundreds of acres with carcasses laying out there," said Wegener. "There are carcasses and hides."

The 14 hunters suspected of shooting the bison belonging to ranchers Monte and Tracy Downare were camped at the nearby Hawn Ranch.

[MtnClimber]

If the trial is in the Psark Combined Court it will be in Fairplay. There is a chance for fair play.

[Uri’el-2012]

I'm sure it will be filed by the 11th District DA.

If he judged by his peers : ranchers, He is deep DOODOO

[rawhide]

The shootings came just days after Hawn — who identified himself as 50 percent shareholder and manager of Wateredge Properties — filed suit in Park County District Court claiming that the Downares' bison were stampeding onto his property in South Park.

South Park has had bison herds for many years.

Another very rich 'city slicker' who thinks it is he who makes the rules. And with all his money, he probably thinks he can buy his way out of anything. I'm thinking he is laughing all the while down in Austin, daring the law to do anything against him.

The bison were doing what bison do. It was up to the 'city slicker' to keep them out.

[MtnClimber]

I was also thinking that the ranchers and others in the small towns around South Park will not take kindly to a liberal city slicker coming in and shooting someone’s bison herd.

[HangThemHigh]

"I just don't understand the intent behind the crime, or don't want to."

I am interested in the relationship between Hawn and the 14 "hunters". I've not seen anything on that. Did he pay them? Did they pay him?

[george76]

Park County Judge Stephen Groome signed a warrant Thursday for Hawn’s arrest

[Uri’el-2012]

I was also thinking that the ranchers and others in the small towns around South Park will not take kindly to a liberal city slicker coming in and shooting someone’s bison herd.

That's not real neighborly.

[Steamburg]

32 head of Bison does not equate with hundreds of acres of carcasses. Its not a particularly good situation, but does it require deceptive reporting? I get a laugh out of the D.A.’s inventive charging. I realize that the meat appears to have been wasted and that Hawn has apparantly deprived the owner of the use and benefit of his beef, but to try to hold Hawn responsible on a lesser felony of cruelty when he did not participate in the “hunt” is a grand stand for emotion by the prosecution. What’s wrong with the class 3 felony for theft in an amount greater than $15,000.

[george76]

Investigators determined the bison had been killed over the course of a number of weeks.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation also matched a bullet cartridge case found on Forest Service land near the scene of dead bison to a 30.06 rifle found in Hawn’s home. A bullet also recovered from a dead bison was similar to a test bullet fired from Hawn’s rifle, according to the affidavit for an arrest warrant.

The names of the hunters were revealed in the arrest affidavit as Antonino Salcedo, Tomas Itsa Shash, Collin Emory Tonozzi, Zachary Richard Rolloff, Mark W. Akins, Russell James Akins, Nathaniel Joel Herbst, Jesus Antonio Cisneros, Mark Dennis Quintana, Jon Lee Duran, Paul Bryan Borquez, Carson Levi Ford, Kenneth Scott Rathbun and Chet Gladstone.

Gore declined to comment if charges would be brought against the hunters.

http://www.theflume.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=5172

[Uri’el-2012]

In a Feb. 25 letter addressed to Antonino Salcedo, Hawn gave permission to Salcedo and his "Atzlan Native Community" colleagues, based in Gardner, Colo., to "remove the buffalo from my ranch."

Illegal Alien invaders slaughtered the Bison

[EveningStar]

SOUTH PARK PING!

For those who don't know how you got on this ping list: the initial ping list was created by copying member names from past South Park threads.

Please ping me with any South Park related articles. Thank you!

If you want on or off this ping list, please FReepmail me.

This is expected to be a low to medium volume ping list.

* South Park TV schedule at Comedy Central

* Watch episodes online at South Park Studios or South Park Zone

* South Park sites at South Park Studios and Comedy Central

* Create a South Park character of yourself at Planearium.de or SouthParkStudios.com.

* South Park products available at Amazon and Comedy Central.

* Download South Park episodes in bit torrent format at South Park Complete or MrTwig

* Read scripts of South Park episodes at South Park Stuff.com

* The South Park Scriptorium, a good all around site for South Park information.

* The Wikipedia article on South Park.

* Search for previous South Park articles at Free Republic by title or keyword.

* List of Ping Lists

[jazusamo]

The city boy is going to have a real hard time getting around the case and bullet matching the rifle in his house and the permission letter. He probably wishes he’d never bought land there now. :)

[Ramius]

Yah... The “cruelty” charge is a little bizarre. Shooting an animal cannot be construed as cruel in any legal, theoretical or practical sense. Unless of course they were deliberately shooting to wound or using a weapon inappropriate to the type of animal, none of which is in evidence here.

That said, its clearly a bad neighborly thing to do. Plenty of other felonies to construct here I should think.

[Uri’el-2012]

Yah... The “cruelty” charge is a little bizarre.

So I can shoot your dog if he comes in my yard.

That is not cruel is it?

To slaughter some one else's livestock
in a ranching community
is cruel and not real neighborly.

[Uri’el-2012]

The city boy is going to have a real hard time getting around the case and bullet matching the rifle in his house and the permission letter. He probably wishes he’d never bought land there now. :)

For him to hire poor deluded marxist chicanos from Gardner, Colorado,
a small historic town in Huerfano county and lie to them to slaughter his
neighbor's livestock will only cause deeper feelings to be stirred.

[george76]

In an affidavit requesting the arrest warrant, a Park County sheriff’s investigator described how one of the 14 hunters who killed the buffalo had a letter from Hawn giving them permission to conduct the bison hunt.

The Feb. 25 letter was sent to Antonio Salcedo of the “Aztlan Native Community” in Gardner Colorado.

“No governmental entity has jurisdiction over trespassing buffalo onto my private lands,” Hawn wrote. “As a result, it is up to me, as the landowner, to determine how to remove the buffalo. My repeated efforts, and that of my attorney, to enlist the aid of the former owner of the buffalo, have failed.”

The letter asks Salcedo to “get started as quickly as possible.” Hawn asked that the hunters call to let him know when they were on site. He also offered to contact Salcedo when the buffalo were spotted on Hawn’s property, “so as to enhance your chances of a successful capture or hunt.”

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/08/charges-filed-bison-shootings/

[george76]

One of the shooters, identified in the affidavit as Antonino Salcedo, immediately turned over a letter written by Stephen Csajaghy, a Denver lawyer, and signed by his client, Jeff Hawn.

“I ask that you get started as quickly as possible,” the letter said, adding that “we will contact you by telephone when we see buffalo on the ranch so as to enhance your chances at a successful capture or hunt.”

No fool, Antonino Salcedo liked the idea of getting free bison meat, but wanted a notarized letter from John Norman granting him and his pals permission for the hunt. It was provided.

On that March 19 morning, though, Salcedo and the others arrived to find at least 16 bison already lying dead, none even remotely dressed out for harvest.

They went on their hunt, anyway.

They would shoot others on the Hawn property, adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands and on neighboring property. By the time investigators sorted it all out, at least seven of the 16 cow bison killed prior to March 19 were about to calve.

According to the affidavit, Jeff Hawn had arrived in Colorado on Continental Airlines from Texas on Feb. 25. Witnesses told deputies they saw Jeff Hawn on his property around that time, carrying a 30.06 rifle. On March 27, deputies conducted a search of Hawn’s home, finding the rifle and boxes of 30.06 shells.

Subsequent testing of the slugs taken from the 16 dead bison made them a match for Jeff Hawn’s rifle, the affidavit states.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/08/johnson-bison-slaying-old-west-feud/

[Ramius]

So you’re willing to concede that hunting deer with a rifle is “cruelty”? I’m not.

If killing bison with a rifle is officially defined by a court as “cruel”, then so is killing anything else with a rifle. Get it?

That it was somebody else’s bison and utterly wrong is true, but not my point. This guy is a dirtbag. What he did is inexcusable. But to reach into the legal toolkit and grab onto the “cruelty to animals” laws isn’t the right tool for this job.

[MtnClimber]

A marxist control freak from Austin, TX.... using reconquista propaganda against legitimate land owners...surprise, surprise. I wonder if the fencing was cut on purpose. Could even have been done to stir up the reconquista sentiment in the latino-marxist community just as others like Charles Manson or the Black Panthers that tried to stir up race wars in the past. Just saying it seems to smell of the past.

[Myrddin]

The ballistic match to Hawn's rifle is pretty damning evidence. It sounds like he personally shot 16 of the animals with his own 30-06 before the "hunters" he hired arrived on the scene to continue the carnage. The notarized letter from him to the "hunters" directing them to "remove" the animals from his property makes him directly responsible for their actions as well. He should probably be making arrangements for someone to carry on his business responsibilities. It's pretty hard to do that effectively from a prison cell.