Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court Fight(ex-owner now in prison)

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court Fight(ex-owner now in prison) (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:12:48 AM EDT

Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court Fight
By ANDREW POLLACK
August 19, 2005
www.nytimes.com/2005/08/19/national/19ranch.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1124438836-qDqJGpgaSPaPnRoRCxs5fg
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."

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."

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:17:12 AM EDT

[#1]

stupid americans and fucking illegals.. what is this world coming too

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:20:51 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:

"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.

Well that pretty much explains everything.

That asshole needs to die for the damage he has done to this country.

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:20:52 AM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:

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.

They get a ranch worth $120,000 and they now might be eligible to stay and work in this country after entering the illegally.

Arizonans --->

<---- Bush Administration

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:23:53 AM EDT

[#4]

Theres one for the WTF File.

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:24:27 AM EDT

[#5]

Shoot, shovel, shut-up.

Sheep

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:24:49 AM EDT

[#6]

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.

This is unbelievable...........

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:29:40 AM EDT

[#7]

What a country! In Russia, ranch wins you!

Posted: 8/19/2005 12:30:46 AM EDT

[#8]

This country is going down hill fast

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:14:03 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
This country is going down hill fast

This country has gone off the edge of liberty's precipice and is plummeting down to the rocky shoals of tyranny.

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:22:32 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
stupid americans and fucking illegals.. what is this world coming too

You got that right ! Some dumb ass felon guilty of illegal gun possession. Just what we need to make those who oppose illegal immigration look like a bunch of mindless, violent thugs. Now the illegals have the land and the Americans look stupid or worse.

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:27:40 AM EDT

[#11]

"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. "
Don't you have right to kill a trespasser in Texas, as long as he is on your PRIVATE property? The illegals were,are and will be at fault not the rancher.
How a sane person fails to understand that is beyond me...

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:29:11 AM EDT

[#12]

Viva Aztlan!

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:34:11 AM EDT

[#13]

God help the true Patriot......................

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:34:39 AM EDT

[#14]

Fuck it, whenever you see an illgal on some remote patch of ranch,desert, shoot the fucker dead and bury his/her ass. If there are a lot of em, leave em there fopr the vultures to eat.

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:39:28 AM EDT

[#15]

Moral of the story: dead men tell no tales (or file lawsuits.)

Posted: 8/19/2005 1:44:36 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Fuck it, whenever you see an illgal on some remote patch of ranch,desert, shoot the fucker dead and bury his/her ass. If there are a lot of em, leave em there fopr the vultures to eat.

Why burry 'em? Stack 'em up on a dolly and dump 'em back in Mexico with a "Import Denied" sign on their asses?

Posted: 8/19/2005 2:00:03 AM EDT

[#17]

I say line the corpse along the boarder as a warning. A sign saying "Cross at your peril" should do nicely

Posted: 8/19/2005 2:03:26 AM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
God help the true Patriot......................

Thats exactly what he is. A God-Damned patiot. So what if he was a felon, he's still a human. Served his punishment in jail for whatever he did, and thats that, why should he still be punished with less rights?

He stood up for what he believed in when the government ignored the situation. Tried to do the right thing; protect our borders.

Well guys, we know what happens now when someone actually does what we dream of on this board; take up arms, and uphold the law with force. It gets your property seized, given to the real criminals and you go to jail.

This is truly a very sad day in America

Posted: 8/19/2005 2:43:41 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Quoted:
God help the true Patriot......................

Thats exactly what he is. A God-Damned patiot. So what if he was a felon, he's still a human. Served his punishment in jail for whatever he did, and thats that, why should he still be punished with less rights?

He stood up for what he believed in when the government ignored the situation. Tried to do the right thing; protect our borders.

Well guys, we know what happens now when someone actually does what we dream of on this board; take up arms, and uphold the law with force. It gets your property seized, given to the real criminals and you go to jail.

This is truly a very sad day in America

Southern Poverty Law Center is a Marxist cohort of the ACLU: which stated 80 years ago that they would use our Constitution and legal system to destroy this country.

Regards,
Mild Bill

Posted: 8/19/2005 2:56:02 AM EDT

[#20]

S, S & S

That's all I'm sayin'.

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:09:09 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Fuck it, whenever you see an illgal on some remote patch of ranch,desert, shoot the fucker dead and bury his/her ass. If there are a lot of em, leave em there fopr the vultures to eat.

Why burry 'em? Stack 'em up on a dolly and dump 'em back in Mexico with a "Import Denied" sign on their asses?

+1

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:21:14 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
Shoot, shovel, shut-up.

Sheep

yep

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:26:32 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
Southern Poverty Law Center is a Marxist cohort of the ACLU: which stated 80 years ago that they would use our Constitution and legal system to destroy this country.

Regards,
Mild Bill

Of course they have to sell the land, I would bet the group above is getting a heafty chunk of the proceeds once the ranch is liquidated. Should help in their mission to go against everything this country is about or should I say used to be about. The judge is probably an illegal that went through college and law school for free while collecting welfare and food stamps.

ETA: I also wonder how many illegals were on the jury.

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:36:56 AM EDT

[#24]

They should have just shot the frigging illegals and nobody would have even missed them. Now they losing everything over illegals. What a bunch of horse shit.

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:37:50 AM EDT

[#25]

judge should have told the illegals they were lucky to be alive and that if they were caught in the US againt they'd be strung up on the border as a scare crow

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:55:58 AM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
They should have just shot the frigging...

...invaders, and left the bodies where they fell.

Posted: 8/19/2005 3:58:02 AM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
What a country! In Soviet Russia, ranch wins you!

If you're gonna make /. jokes, get it right.

Kharn

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:00:22 AM EDT

[#28]

We are all witnessing the death of common sense.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:02:53 AM EDT

[#29]

Quoted:
Moral of the story: dead men tell no tales (or file lawsuits.)

Roll back the clock 100 year and that is how illegal trespassers were taken care of.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:11:37 AM EDT

[#30]

I saw this on freerepublic.com and could hardly believe it.

We have surely now become the dinosaur and will be extinct soon.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:13:15 AM EDT

[#31]

Un-freakin' real.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:15:17 AM EDT

[#32]

Southern Poverty Law Center

Anyone got an 8 digit grid on that?

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:16:13 AM EDT

[#33]

Lawyers are the scum of the earth! What the ranchers should do is file an imminent domain suit with the county claiming that the illegals are underutilizing the property.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:31:21 AM EDT

[#34]

Anybody hear about the Border Patrol agent that was transporting "Undocumented workers" across the border...in his patrol car?? The guy was an illegal alien who forged his documents to get the job.

I can't find the link,gotta go to work.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:43:16 AM EDT

[#35]

The law of unintended concequences will take over here. The ranchers gave them food and water and let them go..... Now that such acts can get yoru property stolen, and given to illegals what incentive is there legaly to NOT shoot them? This has the potential to up the ante and I think people are going to be going the S.S.S. route rather than loose their property.

Posted: 8/19/2005 4:57:48 AM EDT

[#36]

which is why if you own any kind of real property you should have a trust set up.

Posted: 8/19/2005 5:04:19 AM EDT

[#37]

SS&S when will they learn.

Posted: 8/19/2005 5:05:02 AM EDT

[#38]

Roman Empire, meet USA. USA, meet Roman Empire. Say, you two could be brothers you look so much alike...

Posted: 8/19/2005 5:09:10 AM EDT

[#39]

Impalement was very motivational as well.

btw, my memory was that Nethercot even had video's showing that the allegited assult of the invaders never happened, but was a fabricated story. Likewise fbi took out one of Nethercot's group with a sniper.

Posted: 8/19/2005 5:22:49 AM EDT

[#40]

Once again, I repeat - who's the *real* problem here?

To me, its fairly obvious.

Posted: 8/19/2005 5:29:33 AM EDT

[#41]

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:00:35 AM EDT

[#42]

That is a joke article, right? It couldn't possibly be real. Somebody tell me it's a hoax.....Please...........

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:01:40 AM EDT

[#43]

Ya see that, over there, just over the horizon...

There's a storm a comin'.

I didn't just hear that, did I?
I swear, when I watch the news and see BS like this, my brain feels like it needs to be rebooted.

We are our own worst enemy. Political Correctness will be the death of this country!

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:04:05 AM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:
Quoted:

"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.

Well that pretty much explains everything.

That asshole needs to die for the damage he has done to this country.

Yep, this whole thing stinks. Stinks a lot.

How convenient that the two illegals got to apply for special visas since they decided to testify.

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.

Yep. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but everytime I detain trespassers in the middle of the night and pistolwhip them I give them water, cookies, and a blanket then release them.

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:07:41 AM EDT

[#45]

Quoted:
Ya see that, over there, just over the horizon...

There's a storm a comin'.

I didn't just hear that, did I?
I swear, when I watch the news and see BS like this, my brain feels like it needs to be rebooted.

We are our own worst enemy. Political Correctness will be the death of this country!

+1

I just dont even know what to say. This is on par with a car jacker sueing for getting shot in the guy while trying to rob you. It makes no sense but happens all the time.
I fear our country is slipping away and all we can do is watch.

Thank the next liberal you run into for shit like this.
CH

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:08:41 AM EDT

[#46]

Quoted:
Southern Poverty Law Center

Anyone got an 8 digit grid on that?

Eight?!

I'll give ya twelve!

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:11:47 AM EDT

[#47]

we are doomed

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:15:56 AM EDT

[#48]

Wetidlerjr wrote:

You got that right ! Some dumb ass felon guilty of illegal gun possession. Just what we need to make those who oppose illegal immigration look like a bunch of mindless, violent thugs. Now the illegals have the land and the Americans look stupid or worse.

Nice way to misplace the blame.

The Feds have had a hardon for Nethercott for a while. Last year they shot him because "he was known to have gone armed". No shit, that was the FBI's actual defense in court.

Something tells me this man does not have the temperament for this bullshit. When he is prison for murder soon everyone here can call him a nutcase felon again - at least he didn't bend over for the persecution these fucks have decided they want for him.

When you get pinched for refusing to turn in your guns and become a felon, we'll be sure to call you a "dumb ass felon guilty of illegal gun possession" on this board

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:16:01 AM EDT

[#49]

WTF?

Posted: 8/19/2005 6:19:13 AM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Impalement was very motivational as well.

btw, my memory was that Nethercot even had video's showing that the allegited assult of the invaders never happened, but was a fabricated story. Likewise fbi took out one of Nethercot's group with a sniper.

The Feds have had a hardon for Nethercott for a while. Last year they shot him because "he was known to have gone armed". No shit, that was the FBI's actual defense in court.

Something tells me this man does not have the temperament for this bullshit. When he is prison for murder soon everyone here can call him a nutcase felon again - at least he didn't bend over for the persecution these fucks have decided they want for him.

Write it down m#$%&*(%r
Because it's gonna happen.
They damn well better sell that land. They don't want to be around when this guy gets his wings.

SSS

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Two Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court Fight(ex-owner now in prison) (Page 1 of 2)

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