Illegal Aliens Awarded AZ Ranch in Lawsuit

[Citicop]

NY Times Story Here

2 Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court

By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: August 19, 2005

DOUGLAS, Ariz., Aug. 18 - Spent shells litter the ground at what is left of the firing range, and camouflage outfits still hang in a storeroom. Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that promised to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border with Mexico.


Now, in a turnabout, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants whom the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally.

The land transfer is being made to satisfy judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had said that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them.

"Certainly it's poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land," said Morris S. Dees Jr., co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which represented the immigrants in their lawsuit.

Mr. Dees said the loss of the ranch would "send a pretty important message to those who come to the border to use violence."

The surrender of the ranch comes as the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared a state of emergency because of the influx of illegal immigrants and related crime along the border.

Bill Dore, a Douglas resident briefly affiliated with Ranch Rescue who is still active in the border-patrolling Minuteman Project, called the land transfer "ridiculous."

"The illegals are coming over here," Mr. Dore said. "They are getting the American property. Hell, I'd come over, too. Get some American property, make some money from the gringos."

The immigrants getting the ranch, Edwin Alfredo Mancía Gonzáles and Fátima del Socorro Leiva Medina, could not be reached for comment. Kelley Bruner, a lawyer at the law center, said they did not want to speak to the news media but were happy with the outcome.

Ms. Bruner said that Mr. Mancía and Ms. Leiva, who are from El Salvador but are not related, would not live at the ranch and would probably sell it. Mr. Nethercott bought the ranch in 2003 for $120,000.

Mr. Mancía, who lives in Los Angeles, and Ms. Leiva, who lives in the Dallas area, have applied for visas that are available to immigrants who are the victims of certain crimes and who cooperate with the authorities, Ms. Bruner said. She said that until a decision was made on their applications, they could stay and work in the United States on a year-to-year basis.

Mr. Mancía and Ms. Leiva were caught on a ranch in Hebbronville, Tex., in March 2003 by Mr. Nethercott and other members of Ranch Rescue. The two immigrants later accused Mr. Nethercott of threatening them and of hitting Mr. Mancía with a pistol, charges that Mr. Nethercott denied. The immigrants also said the group gave them cookies, water and a blanket and let them go after an hour or so.

The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison.

Mr. Mancía and Ms. Leiva also filed a lawsuit against Mr. Nethercott; Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue; and the owner of the Hebbronville ranch, Joe Sutton. The immigrants said the ordeal, in which they feared that they would be killed by the men they thought were soldiers, had left them with post-traumatic stress.

Mr. Sutton settled for $100,000. Mr. Nethercott and Mr. Foote did not defend themselves, so the judge issued default judgments of $850,000 against Mr. Nethercott and $500,000 against Mr. Foote.

Mr. Dees said Mr. Foote appeared to have no substantial assets, but Mr. Nethercott had the ranch. Shortly after the judgment, Mr. Nethercott gave the land to his sister, Robin Albitz, of Prescott, Ariz. The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the siblings, saying the transfer was fraudulent and was meant to avoid the judgment.

Ms. Albitz, a nursing assistant, signed over the land to the two immigrants last week.

"It scared the hell out of her," Margaret Pauline Nethercott, the mother of Mr. Nethercott and Ms. Albitz, said of the lawsuit. "She didn't know she had done anything illegal. We didn't know they had a judgment against my son."

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German Garcia/The Monitor, via Associated Press
Fátima Leiva and Edwin Mancía have been awarded an Arizona ranch.
This was not the first time the law center had taken property from a group on behalf of a client. In 1987, the headquarters of a Ku Klux Klan group in Alabama was given to the mother of a boy whose murder was tied to Klansmen. Property has also been taken from the Aryan Nations and the White Aryan Resistance, Mr. Dees said.

Joseph Jacobson, a lawyer in Austin who represented Mr. Nethercott in the criminal case, said the award was "a vast sum of money for a very small indignity." Mr. Jacobson said the two immigrants were trespassing on Mr. Sutton's ranch and would have been deported had the criminal charges not been filed against Mr. Nethercott.

He criticized the law center for trying to get $60,000 in bail money transferred to the immigrants. While the center said the money was Mr. Nethercott's, Mr. Jacobson said it was actually Ms. Nethercott's, who mortgaged her home to post bail for her son.

Mr. Nethercott and Mr. Foote had a falling out in 2004, and Mr. Foote left Camp Thunderbird, taking Ranch Rescue with him. Mr. Nethercott then formed the Arizona Guard, also based on his ranch.

In April, Mr. Nethercott told an Arizona television station, "We're going to come out here and close the border with machine guns." But by the end of the month, he had started his prison sentence.

Now, only remnants of Camp Thunderbird remain on his ranch, a vast expanse of hard red soil, mesquite and tumbleweed with a house and two bunkhouses. One bunkhouse has a storeroom containing some camouflage suits, sleeping bags, tarps, emergency rations, empty ammunition crates, gun parts and a chemical warfare protection suit.

In one part of the ranch, dirt is piled up to form the backdrop of a firing range. An old water tank, riddled with bullet holes, is on its side. A platform was built as an observation post on the tower that once held the water tank.

Charles Jones, who was hired as a ranch hand about a month before Mr. Nethercott went to prison, put up fences and brought in cattle to graze. He has continued to live on the property with some family members.

But now the cattle are gone, and Mr. Jones has been told that he should prepare to leave. "It makes me sick I did all this work," he said.

Ms. Nethercott said she was not sure whether her son knew that his ranch was being turned over to the immigrants, but that he would be crushed if he did.

"That's his whole life," she said of the ranch. "He'd be heartbroken if he lost it in any way, but this is the worst way."

[22GlockGirl]

OK. Let me get this straight. An AMERICAN CITIZEN is defending HIS LEGAL PROPERTY from ILLEGAL ALIENS, gets arrested and thrown in jail, and his property is GIVEN TO THE ILLEGALS?!?!?!!?!??!!?!?!?!??! WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Holy crap this pisses me off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! WTF is WRONG with this country nowa days?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Yet our government wonders why we have such a problem with illegal immigration!?!?! GEE, I WONDER. Here, drag your nasty self across the border, bring your 80,000 kids and diseases, TRESPASS on a LEGAL AMERICAN's land, then file a lawsuit when he smacks you upside the head, and you can have all his land, and a free ride to stay and work here in America because you have been "mistreated".

AAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

BIG FENCE, LAND MINES, BIG RIFLES, ZERO TOLERENCE POLICY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something HAS to be done about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

OK, sorry mods, I'm done and I'll stop yelling :(

[MisterK]

Wow.. just wow..

This seriously makes me sick in my gut... We are on the fast track to the USA becoming another hell hole just like the rest of the world.

[WAMBAUGHREADER]

"The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison. "

He was a convicted felon in posessoin of a firearm. Hilbilly criminal vigilante. I HATE felons with firearms. Im glad he lost the ranch.

Im not saying that we shouldnt stop trying to repel illegal immigration. The way this guy appeared to be going about it was not going to be good. There are certain people out there who you definitely do not want help from or for them to represent your cause.

[matt87]

Wow.. just wow..

This seriously makes me sick in my gut... We are on the fast track to the USA becoming another hell hole just like the rest of the world.

Sad thing is there really isn't much we can do about it. Seems like none of the Presidents really care, and just now are the governors of these southern states starting to seriously look at it.

[22GlockGirl]

"The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison. "

He was a convicted felon in posessoin of a firearm. Hilbilly criminal vigilante. I HATE felons with firearms. Im glad he lost the ranch.

Im not saying that we shouldnt stop trying to repel illegal immigration. The way this guy appeared to be going about it was not going to be good. There are certain people out there who you definitely do not want help from or for them to represent your cause.

OK, I can concede the hillbillys/felons with guns bit, what I have the problem with is that the illegals were given his ranch. Sell it off, government repo, whatever. But don't GIVE it to an ILLEGAL! That sends the WROOOOONG message........

[MisterK]

"The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison. "

He was a convicted felon in posessoin of a firearm. Hilbilly criminal vigilante. I HATE felons with firearms. Im glad he lost the ranch.

Im not saying that we shouldnt stop trying to repel illegal immigration. The way this guy appeared to be going about it was not going to be good. There are certain people out there who you definitely do not want help from or for them to represent your cause.

Quite frankly I will take a felon over an illegal. At least with a felon I know that I can do something about that. I could walk into a room of illegals doing what they do best, sucking up the resources of my country, and no one gives a crap.

I find one felon with a gun, make a call and that sucker is gone.

[Frogdiver]

"The Salvadorans testified against Mr. Nethercott when he was tried by Texas prosecutors. The jury deadlocked on a charge of pistol-whipping but convicted Mr. Nethercott, who had previously served time in California for assault, of gun possession, which is illegal for a felon. He is now serving a five-year sentence in a Texas prison. "

He was a convicted felon in posessoin of a firearm. Hilbilly criminal vigilante. I HATE felons with firearms. Im glad he lost the ranch.

Im not saying that we shouldnt stop trying to repel illegal immigration. The way this guy appeared to be going about it was not going to be good. There are certain people out there who you definitely do not want help from or for them to represent your cause.

I am glad he's in jail but mad as hell he lost the farm to a couple of illegal POS's. :mad: When are they going to be deported?

[Ken K]

I am glad he's in jail but mad as hell he lost the farm to a couple of illegal POS's. :mad: When are they going to be deported?

Well, now that they are landed aristocracy, I am sure they will get their visas and stay! :eek:

[thepup]

Im glad he lost the ranch.

There is no way in hell that he should have lost his ranch. There is also no way in hell that he should have had a firearm. But those illegals shouldn't be getting his ranch just because he threatened them for trespassing.

[RO56]

Yet our government wonders why we have such a problem with illegal immigration!?!?! GEE, I WONDER.

They're not illegal immigrants -- they're "undocumented workers" ... :rolleyes:

"The immigrants getting the ranch, Edwin Alfredo Mancía Gonzáles and Fátima del Socorro Leiva Medina, could not be reached for comment."

Why, because they can't speak E-N-G-L-I-S-H? :rolleyes:

[MisterK]

So Senor Gonzales and Socorroa Leiva Medina what do you think of the far reaching appliucations of this case as it applies to people on both sides of the border?


Que?

[Country_boy396]

At this point, I must inject a strong dose of hillbilly backwoods intelligence into this topic. This is going to be a looooooong post, please bear with me, it gets good.

I am very protective of my belongings, and yes, I would consider breaking someones head if they mistreated certain portions of my stuff, this would be for no other reason than the fact that some things I have cannot be replaced, either due to sentimental value, or rarity. I however do not understand the need to be a paramilitary psycho thrillbilly to keep your property clean.

Yes, if you come onto my property sneakin' through the bushes, I may ask you what the flying blue %&#*^$#* you think you are doing, but only out of curiosity. If you come into my house without my permission, you may very well be shot on sight by me or other folks here who know the local gunsmith better than we know family, but only due to the contents of this (semi-rough) neighborhood.

The guys that originally owned the ranch in my opinion were trying to keep property they paid taxes on, and paid bills on, in a suitable condition. If I plopped down a hundred grand on a piece of land, you can bet your elbows that I will run it as I please, but I wouldn't physically harm somebody for walking on it. I may invite them to take their crap and skeedaddle pronto double time, but I wouldn't bounce them around.

Now for the other side of the coin, the side that may get me a little neg rep (hey, I have an opinion, just like you). The "undocumented workers" (wonder what they was workin on that couldn't be documented? :rolleyes: Lets just call them Illegal Immigrants) were tresspassing on private property, so in my crooked sense of things, they are in the wrong. I could care less if the are white, black, pink, purple, or green with silver racin' stripes, they were on property they had no right being on, in a country they didn't belong in. The Illegal Immigrants, whose names I am not about to try to say or type, had discovered a easy way to get into the land of the free and the home of the Big Mac on the cheap, and they did it.

I admire them for their brain, but not for screwing a guy out his land. Yes the owner of the ranch may have had an arsenal to be challenged only by the USMC, but he had it on land he bought, paid for, paid taxes on, and kept up. The guys that walked in royally screwed him into a brand new dimension, and it makes me sick.

Around here, land sells for between $200 and $2000 an acre, and I am sure it is higher and lower elsewhere. These Illegal Immigrants drove their chevy cars and big ford trucks straight in to the land of big welfare bucks. And where the hell are they gonna be in five years, right there on welfare, letting ME AND YOU(!!!) support them while they claim they are being racially discriminated against by employers. Total BS, and a stinky truck load too. So they sell the land, great, then they send all that money back home to Madre-Padre, depleting American economy every step of the way. Then they will either be letting people in America who have a job support them, or they will be stealing jobs from American citizens that got here legally.

I apologize for my rough attitude, however I must say that this is the most disgusting thing I have seen in a while.

The Immigrants had better count themselves lucky that this good ol' 4 wheel drivin', hard working country from West Tennessee was not running that trial, because those "undocumented workers" would not have had a leg to stand on. It is a sad day when someone can be breaking multiple laws and still screw America over.

Whats next Osama himself suing George W. for defamation of lack of character? Wacko Jacko suing boys clothing manufacturers for making those boys look so steamy? Rosie O'Donnel suing Hunny Buns for giving her pudgy ones?

[RO56]

Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

And every time you vote for a liberal, an illegal alien gets amnesty, a welfare check and a driver's license.

[cntryboy0531]

This is by far one of the most (if not, the most) disgusting things I have ever seen. I agree, the felon should be jailed for possesion of a firearm by a felon, however, they should have given the property to family, or if part of the judgement was he forfeit property, it be sold by the government, to pay his court costs and other fee's. Not given to two FREELOADING illegal immigrants who come here to deplete our country of its resources. I believe however, that man should have the right to forcibly throw a tresspasser (especially an Illegal immigrant) off of his property, HE paid for. He should have used better judgement than to knock them around though. Detain them, and call the police.

BTW, I wonder if it is possible that we could get legislation that would allow immigrants to be shot on sight at the border?? That could put a curve in our problem. :D