Posted on 08/20/2005 8:15:09 AM PDT by kennedy
Two Salvadoran immigrants booted off a South Texas ranch in 2003 by the vigilante group Ranch Rescue were awarded a chunk of land from one of the participants in the clash that had spawned civil suits and criminal charges.
An attorney for the immigrants called it "poetic justice." The 70-acre ranch, near the Arizona-Mexico border, was believed to be used to train militias.
It belonged to Casey Nethercott, 37, who's serving a five-year sentence since a Jim Hogg county jury found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm during the scuffle with the immigrants near Hebbronville.
The Salvadorans, Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales, 26, and Fatima Del Socorro Leiva Medina, 30, testified that Nethercott pistol-whipped Mancia in the head, but the jury deadlocked on that allegation.
The pair then filed a lawsuit against Nethercott, Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue, and the owner of the Hebbronville ranch, Joe Sutton.
Sutton, who'd invited the border watch group to his land because he was fed up with drug-traffickers and immigrants passing through on their way north, settled for $100,000.
But Nethercott and Foote didn't respond to the suit, resulting in a combined $1.35 million default judgment against them.
Nethercott's ranch, which he bought in cash for $120,000, was signed over to the immigrants Aug. 11.
"That's pretty good given the way (Nethercott) handled people, the things he had done," said retired Texas Ranger Doyle Holdridge, who interviewed the immigrants before the criminal trial. "Something fair happened at the end and the people didn't get the complete shaft.
"What struck me is that when you looked at those two victims, you talk about harmless, docile people. I mean these people were so meek and mild."
The payout comes at time when the governors of Arizona and New Mexico are complaining about how the flow of illegal immigration along the border is out of control, which also was the motivation for the highly publicized Minuteman Project, another border watch group.
Marvin Rader, an attorney from the Houston area who previously represented Sutton, lambasted the outcome of the case.
"We need some legislation to make it so that these illegal aliens can't come in here and sue people," he said. "It's ridiculous for them to be suing the ranchers when they are trespassing on their property. We are not taking care of the borders."
But Morris Dees, chief trial counsel for the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which represented the Salvadorans in the suit, said signing the ranch over to the immigrants is "poetic justice."
"I think it's an important resolution of this matter against Ranch Rescue because it first of all sends a message to legitimate ranchers and others that you don't just risk the condemnation of good people, but you might also risk your assets and your land," Dees said.
Rader said in response: "To me it's a bad message. We are basically taking the borderlands away from the people —— that rightfully own those lands —— by failing to protect them.
"If somebody moved into your house and the police wouldn't do anything about it, what would you do? You'd take the law into your own hands and start moving them out yourself."
According to court testimony in the criminal trial, Sutton complained the Border Patrol wasn't effective, yet he didn't give agents open access to his land.
Nethercott, a former bounty hunter, deeded his Arizona ranch property to his sister, Robin Albitz; however, the immigrants sued for fraudulent transfer. Albitz ultimately signed the property over to them, Dees said.
Neither Nethercott's attorney, Jay Jacobson, nor Albitz could be reached for comment.
Dees said it's unclear what the immigrants will do with the property, but they'll probably sell it. He said they are in the United States legally with temporary permits as they seek permanent status.
Mancia lives in Los Angeles and Leiva in Dallas.
They are both doing "work that migrants do. Work that's difficult to get Americans to do," Dees said.
I have read this through several times. Unless I am missing a grievous crime committed by the US citizens, this ruling is absolutely incredible. First, violence committed while defending your property is frequently mischaracterized as criminal. Some states call it a crime to defend your home before the intruder is actually inside the house and in some cases the owner must further justify the amount of force used in defending the the home from within! The Left seems intent on extending the benefits of our Constitution to those who are not only not citizens, but frequently are violent and/or criminal.
It is an unfortunate legacy of the Democrats that our country is starting to be run by the judicial branch and not the legislative branch. And even worse, the judiciary is ignoring the Constitution and are imposing their own personal views.
Amen, brother.
I'll bet that these two lose this piece of property within a few years... probably for non-payment of taxes. I wonder who'll pick it up ??.
End Welfare = Labor Supply Problem Solved!
The lies roll out of the child molester's mouth endlessly.
So they people that are hiring the illegals are ALSO violating the Federal Wage Protection Laws? HUMMM, how interesting.
Property owner, in an attempt to protect his property, throws illegal immigrants off his land. Property owner is thrown in jail. Court gives illegal immigrants property owner's land. Yep. It's almost time to take up arms.
If this is a remedy that is even legal I would be surprised. It seems another judge overstepped his bounds.
Round these parts, Morris Dees is referred to as a lowdown snake. And that's putting it mildly.
It seems that the main action prosecuted was the violation of probation/parole which allowed the immigrants a "loophole" of a rebuttable presumption; id est, "his word against yours" swings in favor of the petitioner since the defendant violated a condition of his probation. The poor land owner was dead in the water before the "trial" started.
Watch as this border ranch becomes a safehouse for more illegals coming over the border.
They were in the country illegally when the incident happened. They now have money in their pockets and temporary permits.
One should parse this sentence carefully. "They are" is present tense and does not say they were legal at the time of the incident. There is an excellent chance that the plaintiffs' lawyer locked in their legal status post-incident so as to secure their ability to have continued standing in the court and be able to secure ownership of the property. The lawyer is thus able to secure his fee when the property is sold.
A simple step in rationalizing this conjecture is answering the posit of why "legal" immigrants were crossing the border at this defendant's property line?
When a property owner loses his land to the intruder for protecting it, it's time for drastic action. This should be a warning to other property owners on the border.
For fear of being banned or called a racist, I'm not posting what I think they should've done. But I wouldn't have been quite so nice as these guys were.
The gloves are off. This is serious stuff.
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