Jailed For 5 Months For Cleaning Out a Ditch!
Posted By Sharon Rondeau On Sunday, May 5, 2013 @ 8:37 AM In Editorials | No Comments
“IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA”
by Ron Ewart, ©2013
This article can also be viewed at:
http://www.narlo.org/idarchives/050513.html
http://www.narlo.org/idarchives/050513.html
(May
5, 2013) — It is true that we can’t pick our relatives and most
times we can’t pick our neighbors, but many times either can bring us
grief beyond belief. And such was the case for John (not his real name as he requested anonymity) who
owned a few acres of land in a rural area of America, about a half
hour’s drive from a big city. Unfortunately, the government has passed
so many laws that neighbors never settle their differences face-to-face
or in the courts any more. One neighbor just calls the government and
files a complaint on his neighbor, which the government is honor-bound
to investigate, whether the complaint is valid or just neighbor
revenge.
Government
laws have turned many Americans into sniveling snitches. In one county
we know, the local land use authorities were holding seminars for
landowners, teaching them how to rat on their neighbors if they suspect
their neighbor was doing something without benefit of a permit. That is
what we have come to from passing millions of laws that nobody knows,
which leads to the government pitting neighbor against neighbor.
From
what we understand, John’s neighbor had a minor grievance with John
over some work along a common boundary, and instead of working it out
man-to-man, the neighbor called the county land use authorities (CLUA)
and filed a complaint. The CLUA comes out, looks at what John is doing
and says they didn’t see any problem; John didn’t need a permit and went
away. That wasn’t good enough for John’s neighbor and he kept bugging
CLUA until they came out to the property and told John that he needed to
cease and desist. But John had already ceased and desisted with
whatever he had been doing. That wasn’t good enough for CLUA, thanks to
continued bugging by John’s neighbor, and CLUA finally filed
misdemeanor charges against John for continuing to do alleged illegal
work that John had already stopped. Essentially John’s activities
consisted of cleaning out some areas around a ditch and burning the
slash, for which John had gotten a burning permit.
John
ignored their warnings for several months and thought the whole issue
had gone away. But behind the scenes John’s neighbor kept pressuring
CLUA and the county prosecutor to “get” John.
CLUA
and the county prosecutor dragged John into District Court on
misdemeanor charges for filling a wetland and John elected to represent
himself for what he thought was just a minor land use violation that he
could make go away. No such luck. The prosecutor and the District
Court judge decided to make an environmental example out of John by
thwarting every legal attempt John made to defend himself, to the point
that the judge found John in contempt of court and sentenced him to 150
days in jail on a full cash bond of $20,000 each, for five
separate contempt of court charges. Not having $100,000 to pay the
court, John was forced to sit in jail with thieves and murderers for
over 60 days before a third party filed a writ of Habeas Corpus in
Superior Court and had to fork over $20,000 in cash to get John out of
jail on appeal.
Oh,
did we tell you that the wetland charge was made by creating the
wetland AFTER John had done his clearing and burning? There was no
wetland designation in the area anytime before John did his work. In
other words, the prosecutor drummed up the charges by creating a wetland
violation after the fact. That’s how they “got” John.
While
out on appeal John used every legal trick he knew to get the case
dismissed but the court clerk would fail to file and record his
motions. Some motions were lost, others ignored. The District Court
judge literally thumbed his nose at all of John’s efforts. When John
filed a motion to get his case elevated to Superior Court because
according to the state Constitution, the lower court has no jurisdiction
in real estate cases, the District Court judge de-railed that, too.
John filed
motions in Superior Court to get the lower court decision rescinded.
The Superior Court would hear none of it either. We not only read the
transcripts of the lower court record but also attended the District
Court and Superior Court hearings. The transcript screamed of the
District Court judge’s environmental bias against John and he was going
to “get” John any way he could. We even filed written complaints with
the District Court and the Superior Court, signed by several
landowners. We wrote articles about John’s case that appeared in local
venues. The District Court judge wouldn’t let go.
Finding
no help in the two lower courts, John filed motions with the state
appellate court. No help there, either. John went to the State Supreme
Court. They refused to hear the case.
Finally,
just days before the District Court’s order to send John back to jail
for another 90 days and pay a fine of another $1,000, John filed for
clemency with the Governor of the state. The Governor ignored John’s
plea. John tried to get the District Court to give him credit for time
served and for good behavior while in jail for the first 63 days. The
District Court judge said emphatically, NO! and John went back to jail
to sit with thieves and murderers again, essentially for doing
maintenance on HIS property.
Some
of us tried to help John but our efforts fell on deaf ears. John was
forced back to jail for another 90 days for a charge of clearing out a
wetland that didn’t exist before the act of clearing. John became a
sacrificial lamb in the name of radical environmentalism. You have to
steal a car seven times before you go to jail, but woe be to the
landowner who dares to violate a sacred environmental ordinance, for he
shall be sacrificed on the alter of Gaia, the God of Earth.
Perhaps,
in hindsight, John should have hired a land use attorney and made the
charges against him go away. But he chose to defend himself as a
proud American. Perhaps that was an error in judgment on John’s part,
but he and we will never know. Whether defending yourself, or with a
lawyer, going into court is a gamble at best and any good lawyer will
admit it. Court rules are voluminous and can easily trip up the unwary
who dares to defend him- or herself in court. It is a closed,
elite club of judges, lawyers, clerks and the state bar association and
they rule the “Club.” They don’t like people defending themselves
because it messes up their neat little kingdom. Judges legislating from
the bench are as common as houseflies. Oversight of courts is
tantamount to the Fox guarding the Hen House. But all that is moot now
for John.
(We
have had our own sad experiences with the court system. One of those
experiences cost us $35,000 in attorney’s fees for what was blatantly a
frivolous lawsuit.)
John
has been out of jail now for several years but the experience has left
him emotionally, if not financially drained. We haven’t talked to him
in those intervening years and we don’t even know if he still resides on
his land.
If
you don’t think that what happened to John can happen to you, think
again. It is happening all over America. Every week we get one or more
e-mails or phone calls from landowners who are in trouble with
government. Most of them are desperate because they have let their
situation go too far where the government has the landowner by the
throat and the fines and penalties are mounting up. Some are facing
jail time.
So,
ladies and gentlemen, do you have a neighbor who has it in for you?
Will he work it out with you personally, or will he call the
government? Odds are he will call the government because he is a coward
and it is easier than facing you. When he does call the government,
you are going to find yourself in a world of hurt because the code
enforcement officer they send out WILL find something wrong on your
property and they WILL fine you or tell you that you have to restore
your property to its original condition, which will cost you a bundle.
They may even haul you off to jail as they did John.
We can help some landowners with some of the tools on our website. Unfortunately, there are many we can’t help because the government has the law on their side and they have the money(our money) and their own attorneys to thwart any efforts you may attempt to defend yourself. It’s a stacked deck at best.
Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, “In Defense of Rural America,” is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) (www.narlo.org)
a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and
dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for
urban and rural landowners. Mr. Ewart can be reached for comment at ron@narlo.org, or 1 800 682-7848URL to article: http://www.thepostemail.com/2013/05/05/jailed-for-5-months-for-cleaning-out-a-ditch/
Last year, Joel Boniek of Park County, MT, ex-State Representative and Oathkeeper, was arrested by the US Forest Service for daring to ignore Forest Service personnel's orders prohibiting him access to his own property in order to save/protect what he could during a forest fire. After two appearances at which he proceeded to defend himself (pro se), his references to the Constitution were labeled "seditious". He was supported by many neighbors, friends and patriots.
His trial commences on Friday. But here are interesting "coincidences".
Add to this, the information at this link: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/atf-offers-reward-in-red-lodge-explosives-theft/article_ed989256-9bbf-5f2e-b5b4-5fc7bd513532.html
If this is a coincidental incident or treacherous false flag, it matters that people know about it beforehand, and that if it is just a coincidence, Joel Boniek's rights in a courtroom in Montana need to be upheld. No one should be railroaded like he's been.
The Rumor Mill News Reading Room
Nuclear Incident drills in Montana starting Monday
Date: Saturday, 4-May-2013 15:56:35
|
- There has been 559 lbs of explosives stolen in Red Lodge, MT from the Forest Service. Some are of the emulsion type specific for mines because they have little backblast.
- They will be having a nuke exercise across the state starting on Monday running all week, that will ensure DHS, FEMA, FBI, DOD will be in the state
- Boniek's trial is on Friday, where he has been told he cannot stand on the Constitution and that will draw MT. patriots from all over the state into one location.
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