Free Republic

BISBEE (AZ) — It took a (Cochise County) Superior Court jury less than 15 minutes Friday to decide in favor of defendants Roger, Barbara and Donald Barnett in a civil suit that charged them with trespassing on a monastery’s ranch in order to detain a group of illegal immigrants. And while immigration politics were brought up both overtly and subtly throughout the trial, a juror told the Herald/Review the verdict was reached solely on the legal merits of the trespassing charge. Donald J. Mackenzie, 65, an official with the Summerland Monastery and the caretaker of its WindTree Ranch in Douglas,...

SUIT AGAINST BARNETTS DISMISSED A lawsuit filed against Cochise County rancher Roger Barnett, his wife, Barbara, and Donald Barnett, has been dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge John M. Roll. Border Action Network, a group which advocates open borders with Mexico, filed the initial complaint. The lawsuit accused the Barnetts of stopping and reporting a group of 30 undocumented immigrants last October 11 on a ranch in Cochise County owned by Donald Mackenzie. Mackenzie claimed in the lawsuit that he encountered the Barnetts at one of the wells on his (Mackenzie’s) ranch and that he thought Barnett was a...

TUCSON -- Sierra Vista businessman and Douglas area rancher Roger Barnett is being accused of impersonating a federal law officer while detaining illegal immigrants in an October incident, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Border Action Network and Donald J. Mackenzie. Barnett's wife and brother also are named in the suit, which was filed on International Human Rights Day. Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network, said the Barnetts have a pattern of stopping and harassing people who have crossed the border illegally and have boasted about the number of people they have detained. While Barnett...