Replies

So, was the cattle thieving just being used as a weak pretext for the “terrorizing” charge? Lots of questions to be answered here. It’s hard to sympathize with a cattle thief, but that doesn’t seem to be the crux of this issue, since he wasn’t charged with it.

He didn’t steal any cattle. The cattle wandered onto his property and he didn’t know who they belonged to. He is entitled to compensation for any damages and care of the cattle under “estray laws” and that is why he wouldn’t release the cattle. He insisted on being compensated, as was his right. I guess the LEO felt he didn’t need to follow that law and arrested him.....after tasing him 8 to 10 times.

Not sure how that translates into terrorizing cops????!!

The other accounts I have read about this are way different. They Sheriff went out to talk with the rancher about the cows and was run off at gunpoint. The sheriff's dept asked for air support to cover the sheriff's retreat and a drone returning from it's border patrol track was retasked to support that request. The next day the sheriff had an arrest warrant from a judge and a SWAT team. The dept asked for drone support again and it was granted. CBP could have supported the warrant service with a helicopter from the office across town for less money and no national attention.

It sounds to me like the sheriff tried his best Andy Griffith imitation and was run off the property. The next day he brought the entire posse. All for the local Ernest T. Bass and his offspring. Every juridiction seems to have these types.

We had a local burned out drug user whose teenagers hosted a major drinking party at the house, when he was gone. The Sheriff's dept showed up and started writing minor in possession citations. Then the dad showed up and started freaking out so they wrote him 35 citations for providing liquor to minors and drug possession. This ended with threats to everybody in the county with a badge. A couple months later the kids got busted for robbing a drug dealer with a shotgun, so the dept seized the car and shotgun used. A couple months later he went on a coke fueled bender and was shooting a rifle off his roof wearing only underwear.