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From Ranch Rescue
Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2003 8:09 AM
Subject: Ranch Rescue Update - Nethercott and Conner legal situationThis message includes both a restatement of the events surrounding the arrest of Nethercott and Conner as well as current information about their legal situation.
Ranch Rescue concluded Operation Falcon ahead of schedule, on 22 March 2003, due to two of our volunteers being arrested on false charges by a corrupt county Sheriff and District Attorney in Jim Hogg County, Texas. The corrupt, criminal, and medieval form of government in Jim Hogg County has earned them the nickname of the "Texas Taliban".
This is the very same county Sheriff who had just the week before had his letter published in the local paper, warning his county's Citizens of the danger of armed foreign paramilitary troops that have been operating in Jim Hogg County. Copies of the Sheriff's original letter, and the resulting newspaper article, are attached to this message, courtesy of the Jim Hogg County Enterprise newspaper.
Our volunteers were on Joe Sutton's private property as his invited guests, to assist him with dealing with this threat, as publicized by this same Sheriff. This Sheriff admitted to WorldNetDaily reporter Jon Dougherty that he was not talking about Ranch Rescue activities when he wrote his letter, but about an organized criminal enterprise. Jim Hogg County's chief deputy sheriff, Guadalupe Rodriguez, said to Dougherty that he believed the armed men were foreign nationals but not just ordinary drug smugglers: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31553
God only knows what any of these hundreds of criminals might have been carrying across Joe Sutton's ranch. FOX News, Newsweek, and MSNBC all reported a story about Iraqi terrorists planning to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction across the Texas border, in the same general area of Operation Falcon, on the same day that our volunteers were falsley arrested: http://www.msnbc.com/news/889507.asp?cp1=1 . Why were the authorities of Jim Hogg County trying so hard to keep our volunteers, all private Citizens, from preventing mass trespass on this property near Laredo? Remember; the only reason that fourth hijacked plane did not crash into the Capitol Building was because of the valiant efforts of the passengers, all private Citizens, to stop the terrorists themselves.
Hank Conner was released on bail on Friday 28 March 2003 Nethercott will have been in jail for two weeks on Wednesday 2 April. Only on Tuesday 25 March 2003 was Nethercott offered a court-appointed attorney. The intent of the County District Attorney has been purely to stall all efforts to secure their release and to stonewall all attempts to provide them with legal counsel.
On Monday 31 March, a motion for a writ of Habeus Corpus was filed in District Court by Dale Robertson. Robertson filed this motion as a private Citizen, as is allowed under the law. The law states that "any person" may file for a writ of Habeus Corpus, yet the judge denied the motion on the basis that Dale was not an attorney and that he therefore could not represent Casey Nethercott. By denying the motion on this basis, the judge automatically provided Dale with an express ticket to the Court of Appeals in San Antonio. The denial itself, however, is yet another example of how the system of government in Jim Hogg County has devolved into a sham of true representative government. The rights of Citizens were yet again trampled by this action.A copy of the text of my Affidavit that was filed as part of the motion for Habeus Corpus is attached to this message. A copy of Eric Boye's handwritten testimony was also attached to the motion, and it can be viewed online at http://www.patriotvocals.info/RRMembersOPHAWKJailedJournalistTestimony.htm .
Nethercott and Conner were denied medical treatment for the first two days after their arrest. Conner requires blood pressure medication and Nethercott requires insulin, yet neither were provided for their first 48 hours of incarceration. Casey Nethercott is now being kept in Solitary Confinement. He has no TV, no radio, no newspapers, no magazines, no books, not even a Bible. He has been denied all Visitors, including religious counselors. He is being psychologically tortured by this isolation. This is an outrage! This is the behavior of rogue states like Iraq and North Korea, not the United States of America.
While we are confident that our volunteers will eventually be exonerated, I am sure you can appreciate the significant expense that will be involved in defending them against these trumped-up charges. That expense appears to be the only real reason why these charges were ever brought in the first place.
This whole affront is made even worse by the fact that we have been forced to withdraw all of our volunteers from our host's property, leaving him and his wife at the mercy of the hordes of criminals, some armed, that have been pouring across this property 35 miles north of our southern border. This points out the very real dangers that all of us face whenever we volunteer to assist border county landowners who suffer not only from the predations of the hordes of criminals that pour across their property, but also from the neglect and criminal behavior of rogue law enforcement agencies who behave as though in league with the smugglers. They are thugs, not respectable servants of their Citizens.
Please read about the details of this at http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlc=967248 . Please spread the word about what is happening to our courageous volunteers.
If you know anyone that can send in a donation, please ask them to first try by credit card using our PayPal link on our website. Otherwise, please ask them to make out a check or Money Order to "Ranch Rescue Texas" and send it to Austin for deposit to our account:
Steve Mason - Treasurer, Ranch Rescue Texas
PO Box 4334
Austin TX
78765
Here is the contact information for the "Texas Taliban" of Jim Hogg County the Laredo office of the Texas DPS:
Jim Hogg County District Attorney - Rudy Gutierrez
102 East Tilley Street
Hebbronville, TX
78361
(361) 527-4056
(915) 674-1261
Jim Hogg County County Sheriff - Erasmo Alarcon
Office 211 East Galbraith Street
Hebbronville, TX
78361
(361) 527-3389
(361) 527-3710
(361) 527-4140
(361) 527-5843 (fax)
Doyle Holdridge (arresting officer)
Division "D" Texas DPS
1901 Bob Bullock Loop
Laredo, TX.
78043
956-728-2215 - (phone)
956-724-9874 - (fax)Nethercott is locked up at:
ICS Detention Center Facility
Falfurrias, TX
(361) 325-3696
(361) 325-3340
361-325-3342 - (fax)
Casey Nethercott's ID number: JW3954
Many thanks!
Jack Foote
National Spokesman for Border Rescue/Ranch Rescue USA
http://www.ranchrescue.com
State Coordinator for Ranch Rescue Texas
915-888-0518