IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA - 5 MONTHS FOR CLEANING OUT A DITCH! AND AN INTERESTING SEGUE TO A CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM IN MONTANA

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

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“IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA”

by Ron Ewart, ©2013

This article can also be viewed at:
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.

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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 1 800 682-7848

© 2013, The Post & Email. All rights reserved.

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Article printed from The Post & Email: http://www.thepostemail.com
URL 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.

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=275938

The Rumor Mill News Reading Room

Nuclear Incident drills in Montana starting Monday

Date: Saturday, 4-May-2013 15:56:35

If a nuclear incident happened in Montana, key officials don’t want to be meeting each other for the first time. Military personnel at Malmstrom Air Force Base have regular exercises to test their response procedures and make sure everyone knows what to do and when. But starting Monday, their training will go to a higher level. A national exercise, known as NUWAIX 2013, which is executed by U.S. Northern Command and sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, will bring about 1,000 people to Montana throughout the exercise. The exercise isn’t expected to disrupt the community, but locals may notice additional vehicle traffic in and out of the base, increased helicopter activity and some personnel in hazmat suits or “tent cities” at some of the exercise sites. The majority of the exercise will be contained at Malmstrom and Fort Harrison in Helena. Personnel from a variety of local and federal agencies, primarily the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Energy, Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency Region VIII, will augment Malmstrom and other Air Force participants. The exercise will be scenario based, and participants will respond to a nuclear incident, which could be a DOE shipment in the state, an attack on a nuclear missile site, hostile action on base or the missile field or a range of scenarios. http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20130502/NEWS01/304300038/Nuclear-incident-drills-start-Monday-across-Montana?nclick_check=1 "A range of scenarios..?" Like some stolen explosives from nearby Red Lodge, MT being used to make the drill go live? [Why Red Lodge- and it is not "nearby" But yes, fear a false flag...- BF]

1. 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.
2. 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
3. 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.

NO AMERICAN CITIZEN SHOULD FEAR THE STATE OR THE COURT.  DENIAL OF THE RULE OF LAW AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF EVERY AMERICAN CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE  TOLERATED ANY LONGER IN THE REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!  

9TH CIRCUIT GIVES THE A-OK FOR WARRANTLESS HOME VIDEO SURVEILLANCE

From the same set of “judges” that said the government can attach GPS transponders to automobiles without warrants to track “people of interest.”  It took the Supremes to rescind that one.

 

According to this, if you let anyone into your house, even if you do not know they are a government agent, you are risking a government search without a warrant.  Talk about taking a tip from the old KGB and NKVD in the Soviet Union.

 

Welcome to America, land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33191.htm

Ninth Circuit Gives the A-OK For Warrantless Home Video Surveillance

By Hanni Fakhoury

November 30, 2012 "Information Clearing House" Can law enforcement enter your house and use a secret video camera to record the intimate details inside? On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unfortunately answered that question with "yes."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents suspected Ricky Wahchumwah of selling bald and gold eagle feathers and pelts in violation of federal law. Equipped with a small hidden video camera on his clothes, a Wildlife agent went to Wahchumwah's house and feigned interest in buying feathers and pelts. Unsurprisingly, the agent did not have a search warrant. Wahchumwah moved to suppress the video as an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment, but the trial court denied his motion. On appeal before the Ninth Circuit, we filed an amicus brief in support of Wahchumwah. We highlighted the Supreme Court's January 2012 decision in United States v. Jones -- which held that law enforcement's installation of a GPS device onto a car was a "search" under the Fourth Amendment -- and specifically focused on the concurring opinions of Justices Alito and Sotomayor, who were worried about the power of technology to eradicate privacy.

In our brief we argued that although a person may reveal small bits of information publicly or to a house guest, technology that allows the government to aggregate that data in ways that were impractical in the past means that greater judicial supervision and oversight is necessary. After all, a video camera can capture far more detail than the human eye and is specifically designed to allow the government to record, save and review details for another day, bypassing the human mind's tendency to forget. That means police need a search warrant to engage in the type of invasive surveillance they did in Wahchumwah's house.

Unconvinced, the Ninth Circuit instead relied on a case from 1966, Hoffa v. United States, ruling that Wahchumwah forfeited his privacy interest when he "voluntarily" revealed the interior of his home to the undercover agent. But its conclusion contradicts not only the Supreme Court's decision in Jones, but also earlier Ninth Circuit caselaw as well.

In Jones, the Supreme Court made clear that a law enforcement trespass onto private property for the purpose of obtaining information was a "search" under the Fourth Amendment. Under common law, a defendant was not liable for trespass if their entry was authorized. But the Ninth Circuit previously made clear in Theofel v. Farey-Jones that a person's consent to a trespass is ineffective if they're "mistaken as to the nature and quality of the invasion intended." In fact, Theofel cited another Ninth Circuit case where the court found a "police officer who, invited into a home, conceals a recording device for the media" to be a trespasser.

What that means here is that when the undercover agent concealed his identity and purpose, making Wahchumwah "mistaken as to the nature and quality" of the home visit, the government trespassed onto Wahchumwah's property. Since that trespass was done for the purpose of obtaining information -- to get evidence of bald and gold eagle feather and pelt sales -- the government "searched" Wahchumwah's home. And it needed a warrant to do that; without one, the search was unconstitutional.

Its troubling that the Ninth Circuit did not see it this way (nor are they the only one). Because the sad truth is that as technology continues to advance, surveillance becomes "voluntary" only by virtue of the fact we live in a modern society where technology is becoming cheaper, easier and more invasive. The Wahchumwah case exemplifies this: on suspicion of nothing more than the benign misdemeanor of selling eagle feathers, the government got to intrude inside the home and record every intimate detail it could: books on a shelf, letters on a coffee table, pictures on a wall. And we're entering an age where criminal suspicion is no longer even necessary. Whether you're calling a friend's stolen cell phone and landing on the NYPD massive database of call logs, driving into one of the increasing number of cities using license plate scanners to record who comes in or out, or walking somewhere close to hovering drones, innocent people are running the risk of having their personal details stored in criminal databases for years to come.

The only way to avoid pervasive law enforcement monitoring shouldn't be to make the choice to live under a rock in the wilderness somewhere. Instead, the Fourth Amendment means today what it meant in 1787: that the "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects" shouldn't be violated unless the government comes back with a warrant.

This article was originally posted at Electronic Frontier Foundation

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APPEALS COURT RULES DRIVER CAN BE ARRESTED FOR PAYING TOLLS WITH BIG BILLS

http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/appeals-court-rules-drivers-can-be.html

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE'S PETITION TO RESTORE RULE OF LAW TO EPA. HERE'S HOW TO SIGN...

The HEARTLAND INSTITUTE is circulating a citizens’ petition to restore the Rule of Law to EPA .

Details and how to sign --

Thousands Sign Heartland Institute Petition
to Rein in the EPA

More than 5,000 people have signed a petition crafted by The Heartland Institute demanding that Congress “rein in the Environmental Protection Agency” through deep cuts in the size, power, and cost of the agency.

According to the Citizen’s Petition to Rein in the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA has “lost its war to scare America into giving [it] legislation that would allow [it] to seize control of virtually all energy production and use, [and is] perverting the Clean Air law to give [itself] unprecedented powers to regulate American society.”

Heartland says it will publicly present the petitions to Congress once the drive hits 10,000 signatures.

Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, says that in the name of fighting global warming, EPA has become a “rogue agency,” spending $9 billion in 2012 alone to shackle individuals and businesses with expensive and wasteful compliance orders and mandates without the consent of Congress. According to Bast:

“The toll EPA is now taking on our country is staggering, putting hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work at a time when millions of people are out of work and our reliance on foreign sources of energy threatens to compromise the nation’s security. The solution is to rein in EPA through deep cuts in the size, power, and cost of the agency. This can be done by Congress, through its control over the government’s purse, or by a president willing to put sound science and a strong economy ahead of the demands of environmental extremists.”

Read the petition and background essay by The Heartland Institute here. For more comments or to book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Tammy Nash at tnash@heartland.org and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, contact Jim Lakely at jlakely@heartland.org and 312/731-9364.

The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.

James V. DeLong

http://www.specialintereststate.org/

    jvdelong@comcast.net

    SpecialInterestState@gmail.com

Author:  Ending 'Big SIS' (The Special Interest State) and Renewing the American Republic

AMERICA'S FIRST DRONE ASSISTED ARREST UPHELD IN COURT

http://politicaloutcast.com/2012/08/americas-first-drone-assisted-arrest-upheld-in-court/

AGAIN - COURT SAYS SECRET ORDER GIVES TSA RIGHT TO GROPE AND FONDLE

http://godfatherpolitics.com/4671/court-says-secret-order-gives-tsa-right-to-grope-and-fondle/

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT: TSA, NOT PASSENGERS, DESERVE PRIVACY

http://www.wnd.com/2012/04/court-tsa-not-passengers-deserves-privacy/

How much can we take from these pieces of s***?

Are you all getting the picture now?

JUDGE THREATENED WITNESS IN UNDERWEAR BOMBER TRIAL

CROOKED CRONIES: SCOTUS TURNS ASIDE KAGAN RECUSAL REQUEST ON OBAMACARE

http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/high-court-turns-aside-recusal-request-on-health-care-challenge/

No wonder there are lawyer jokes.re

HAWAIAN JUDGE KNOWINGLY SCHEDULES ORLY TAITZ ELIGIBILITY HEARING WHEN SHE MUST BE IN GEORGIA

http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/will-team-obama-get-away-with-this-hawaii-judge-knowingly-schedules-next-hearing-for-date-on-which-atty-orly-taitz-must-be-in-georgia/

IN YOUR FACE, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THAT, PUNCH IN THE FACE TO THE USA, THE PEOPLE, AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

Who you gonna call, the PrezBusters?

Congress - this is reason to remove that judge and ask for disbarment. And then impeach that fraud in the White House.

I'm surprised Mochele didn't paint it an insipid green.

IGNORANT JUDGES ARE LETHAL TO OUR LIBERTY

http://emailactivity.ecn5.com/engines/publicPreview.aspx?blastID=482597&emailID=135033841

ERIC HOLDER NOT THE ONLY LIAR IN FAST AND FURIOUS

http://floydreports.com/eric-holder-is-not-the-only-liar-in-fast-and-furious/

The glamor girl of perversion, propaganda and rights shredding, Janet Napolitano, needs to be held accountable, too.

FORMER HOLDER CHIEF OF STAFF NOMINATION TO COURT IMPERILED OVER FAST AND FURIOUS

http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/former-holder-chief-of-staff-nomination-to-court-imperiled-over-fast-and-furious/

FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR JESSE VENTURA SAYS HE'S OFF TO MEXICO - POWERFUL WORDS AIMED AT A CORRUPT JUSTICE SYSTEM AND GOVERNMENT

http://news.yahoo.com/ventura-miffed-court-says-hes-off-mexico-174718110.html

And I am feeling the same way, lately. I see corruption in government all around me - it trickles down like diarrhea.

THE UNDERCOVEOLICE - THE MEN WHO AREN'T THERE

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/19/undercover-police-law-men-there?CMP=twt_gu

JUDGE SAYS "NO" TO ORLY TAITZ REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ON OBAMA'S SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=339629

Well, IMAGINE THAT!

If you are in authority, who has told YOU, that Obama, the One, is UNTOUCHABLE?

TEXAS COURT TELLS CLERK TO REMOVE PLEDGE AND PRAYER FROM RECORDS - CLERK SAYS "HELL NO"

http://redflamewire.com/2011/06/texas-court-tells-clerk-to-remove-pledge-and-prayer-from-records-clerk-says-hell-no/

And this is happening in Rick Perry's courts?

FEDERAL COURT OF APPEALS UPHOLDS OBAMACARE LAWS - INDIVIDUAL MANDATE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/appeals-court-upholds-health-care-laws-individual-mandate/2011/06/29/AGXR6RrH_story.html

This is what you get when the judges are corrupt, placed by chessmasters like Soros, BFF of Obama.

What are YOU going to do when the Feds come to your door to MAKE YOU PAY WHAT YOU CAN'T?

SOROS TRYING TO STACK THE COURTS

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/27/critics-say-soros-trying-to-stack-courts/?test=latestnews

DOJ AT ITS FRAUDULENT BEST: FEDERAL PENSION THEFT NOT ALWAYS PROSECUTED

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/15/federal-pension-theft-not-always-prosecuted/?page=all#pagebreak