Posted on 05/19/2019 5:05:56 PM PDT by george76
The name of a Navy veteran may be cleared after he was convicted, fined, and imprisoned for digging ponds in a wooded area near his Montana home, to supply water in case of fire.
The Supreme Court has vacated a lower court ruling against Joe Robertson, who was sent to federal prison and ordered to pay $130,000 in restitution through deductions from his Social Security checks.
Any definitive legal victory for Robertson would be posthumous, since he died March 18 at age 80.
But his lawyers describe the Supreme Court’s action as a “big win” for Robertson’s widow, Carrie, who plans to carry on the fight.
...
Barack Obama’s Justice Department had prosecuted Robertson for digging in “navigable waters” without a permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling against Robertson in November 2017 and denied him a rehearing in July 2018.
The Navy veteran’s initial trial at the district court level resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial. He then was convicted after a second district court trial.
Robertson was 78 when he was sentenced in 2016; he completed his 18 months behind bars in late 2017. At the time of his death, he was supposed to be on parole for another 20 months.
...
Prior to his conviction, Robertson operated a business that supplied water trucks to Montana firefighters. Because he himself resided in a “fire-prone landscape,” he was concerned for his safety and that of his property
...
Robertson argued that he didn’t violate the Clean Water Act because digging the ponds did not discharge any soil into “navigable waters,” .. The ponds are more than 40 miles away from “the nearest actual navigable water body,” the Jefferson River
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
UN Agenda 21 ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
These so-called environmentalists must not have so much power.
Poor man, RIP.
I hope his widow is successful in stopping this once and for all.
Getting his money back!
When conservatives talk about the punitive and coercive power of the government against its citizens when used to achieve political ends (and why we should speak out and fight this kind of tyranny) this is EXACTLY what we refer to.
Destroyed his life.
Obama is the one who belongs in a cage.
UN Agenda 21 ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
............................................
Yes, please add me to the list. Most people in my neck of the woods (western Maryland) know absolutely nothing about Agenda 21 or the tyrannical powers of the corrupt EPA.
Plank #1 of the Communist Manifesto: Abolition of private property rights.
The Obama appointee US Attorney , Mike Cotter , who prosecuted this travesty was fired by Trump. And even sweeter, he got a phone call and was told to be off the premises by 5pm.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3584109/posts?page=24#24
ht to DesertRhino
WOTUS is the biggest land grab by any government evah!
You are added. Thanks.
UN Agenda 21 - Coming to a Neighborhood near You.
Carroll County, Maryland is one of 1,168 cities, towns, and counties worldwide that are members of the International Council for ...
Agenda 21 is a direct assault on private property rights and American sovereignty, and it is coming to a neighborhood near you.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/10/un_agenda_21_coming_to_a_neigh.html
It was the Kenyanesian Usurper that did this.
Should have stuck to the Constitution.
Natural born citizen only.
Naturally citizens because they cannot be anything else, born here of citizen parents.
The crazies that keep doing these harmful things to normal ordinary Americans should have to pay dearly with equivalent jail time and $’s -— that is the only way this will stop!!!
There needs to be a lot of regulatory decapture. And with it massive unemployment among the predominantly left wing federal regulatory bureaucracy.
As for “navigable waters” goes, unless the principal use of said waters is commerce among the several States, I.e. they are actually used for navigable waters by shipping or transportation, they should not be in any way considered under federal oversight. Let the States concern themselves with waters of only local interest.
U.S. prosecutors win 99 per cent of the cases that go to court — a success rate that would embarrass Kim Jong Un and Saddam Hussein. Indeed, the feds win 97 per cent without ever going near court.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3750463/posts
Americans who know anything about the country’s evil and depraved “justice” system grasp that central fact. It’s only rubes who say “let the process play out” or “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear.” For a start, by the time the process “plays out,” you’ll be broke and scavenging from dumpsters (as Trump’s fallen National Security honcho Michael Flynn learned, shortly before copping a plea). Second, from a prosecutorial point of view, “if you haven’t done anything wrong” they can still get you on misremembering to the FBI in a matter for which there’s no underlying crime (as Martha Stewart discovered),
The ponds are more than 40 miles away from “the nearest actual navigable water body..
The government uses the EPA, and the ESA (Endangered Species Act) like a hammer regularly to destroy ranchers and farmers. Others like this man and his family get the same treatment if they decide to do certain things with their own land. It is beyond all reason and done to support an agenda. Control sometimes to the point of removing people from their land is the agenda.
It all sounds very “conspiracy theory” oriented and paranoid when it is explained to others but is a very real struggle when used by the government to go against a landowner. Has been happening for years and needs to stop.
obama voters can be proud of themselves and pat themselves on the back one more time.
I know. And he was not their only victim.
In my opinion, obama voters belong in the cage with obama.
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