DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY

Rancher indicted for assault

A jailed Catron County rancher, in court Wednesday seeking release, was instead slapped with an eight-count federal grand jury indictment accusing him of assaulting five federal agents and other charges.
Kit Laney, 43, has been in the Doña Ana County Detention Center since March 14 following his arrest by U.S. Forest Service officers for assault and interference with law enforcement officers.
Laney was arrested, according to federal officers, after he charged them with his horse, then dismounted and tried to tear down fencing encircling his cattle. The officers and hired help were ordered to round up roughly 400 head of Laney’s cattle that were on his allotment in defiance of a court order.
If convicted on the eight charges, Laney could face a maximum of 51 years in prison and fines of more than $2.7 million.
He was in federal court in Las Cruces on Wednesday on a motion to reconsider his confinement. His attorney, federal public defender Jane Greek, had suggested Laney be released to a third party.
“Mr. Robert Jones (of Otero County) has been approved as a person who would be responsible for Mr. Laney,” Greek argued before U.S. Magistrate Karen B. Molzen. Such an arrangement would have required use of electronic monitoring.
“What we have here is essentially a man who tried to let cows out of a pen,” Greek told Molzen. “These are not the allegations of the century.
“The court said its concern was Mr. Laney returning to his ranch and interfering with Forest Service personnel. Staying with Mr. Jones on their ranch on Otero Mesa will solve the concern,” Greek said.
Federal prosecutor Gregg Wormuth argued there was nothing to indicate Laney would not return to his ranch and interfere again.
“This is a tense situation, a powder keg,” Wormuth said. “If Mr. Laney heads back to his ranch it will be trouble, and the court cannot close its eyes to that.”
Wormuth also said there had been threats to the family of Forest Service personnel, adding that the threats were under investigation and hinting they may have been made by friends of Laney.
Molzen ordered Laney to remain in jail, saying she feared he would return to his property.
“Mr. Jones is a fine man,” Molzen said in her ruling. But “I have lost faith in electronic monitoring. Until the roundup is over, Mr. Laney, I feel I cannot release you. I’m doing this to protect the community.”
Greek said she will appeal the ruling to U.S. District Court and hopes for a hearing Monday or Tuesday when U.S. District Judge John Conway of Albuquerque is in Las Cruces.
After the hearing, Jones said the decision was “insulting to the entire ranching community.”
Laney’s ex-wife, Sherry, said she was disappointed with the judge’s decision.
“I’m wondering if this is the United States,” Laney said of her ex-husband’s continued incarceration. “I thought a person was presumed innocent before a trial.”
When Laney made his first appearance in court last week, there were two charges against him: assault and interference with officers. The details of the allegations were read to the court by Charles Roe, the Forest Service case agent, who was not present when the alleged assault occurred.
In reading the description of what occurred, Roe referred to only three officers. In the latest charges, five officers claim to have been assaulted by Laney.
Greek refused comment on the indictment.

T.S. Hopkins can be reached at thopkins@lcsun-news.com

Federal charges against Kit Laney:
Counts 1 and 2: Obstructed proper administration of law
Count 3: Assaulted Officer Dewayne Ross — hit with fists
Count 4: Assaulted Officer Michael Reamer — hit with fists
Count 5: Assaulted Officer Christopher Boehm — hit by horse
Count 6: Assaulted Officer Robin Thies — kicked
Count 7: Assaulted Officer Isaiah Baker — hit with reins
Count 8: Interference with officer — attempt to tear down pen

Laneys waiting on courts

Despite the fact that her husband remains in jail and after years of judicial setbacks, rancher Sherry Laney said this week she is still relying on the courts — at least for now.
The Laneys’ 400 head of cattle are being rounded up in an impoundment procedure by the U.S. Forest Service on the couple’s allotment near the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Area in Catron County.
Laney said the stress of their ranching situation after losing a 1997 court case eventually led her and husband Kit to divorce. The couple has since reconciled and were living and working together on the Diamond Bar Ranch until Kit was arrested by U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers after an alleged scuffle on March 14. He remains in jail in Las Cruces after a hearing Wednesday in U.S. Magistrate Court.
The impoundment and an area closure of the 143,000 acres began earlier this month after a federal district court ruling in December found the couple in contempt of court for continuing to allow their cattle to graze on federal lands, in contravention of earlier court orders. The Laneys contend they have a fee permit interest which predates the Forest Service and which deeds them grazing and water rights.
“Shocked and outraged at the injustice of it,” is how Sherry Laney described her family’s experience and the seizure of their cattle by the Forest Service.
A brand inspector was on site Tuesday afternoon to determine if the cattle being kept at the Forest Service’s Beaverhead Station are indeed the Laney’s; but the agency should not be expecting a bill of sale from the couple any time soon.
“They have no claim to ownership of these cows,” Laney said. “And if they can sell them, the money off the cows will be mailed to the U.S. Forest Service in Silver City. But there’s a lien on the cows with a lending institution in Idaho.”
Laney complained that the Forest Service is acting illegally and has treated her and her family badly over recent weeks.
“They’ve closed down the road here, it’s like martial law,” she said. “They have 10 to 16 law enforcement officers on the road. They have harassed us ... have said we can’t set foot off our deeded land and they have chased Kit’s brother and nephew who were on horses while they were in a vehicle yelling at them with a bullhorn.
“We’ve been lied to continuously,” she continued. “Mainly by Steve Libby and Annette Chavez. Steve Libby said he would call us and he has not.”
Libby, the senior Forest Service range officer overseeing the impoundment procedures, reacted Tuesday to the charges by Sherry Laney.
“Obviously this is very stressful for everyone,” Libby said. “I know there’s a lot of anger and concern and distrust. Throughout this whole, awful ordeal we have attempted to be nothing but professional and considerate of the Laneys and their family.”
Laney claimed the Forest Service posted notification of the impoundment on their ranch gate rather than by telephone as promised.
“I didn’t call her,” Libby acknowledged. “Instead we notified her five days in advance of when we would begin the impoundment. We did that by certified letter.
“Additionally, with each batch of animals that we have taken into our control or gathered, we provided Kit and Sherry with specifics about these animals in a manner that was mutually agreed upon by them and Forest Service personnel,” he added. “And we’ve kept them current with the number of animals that we have in our control as we gather them.”
Libby also explained or refuted Laney’s other charges against the Forest Service.
“We did close the road,” he said. “We did close the area, but we’ve already explained this was necessary to provide for an efficient operation and public safety. We expect to have the road closure lifted by the end of this month, that’s our objective.
“I have to disagree that we have harassed the Laneys,” Libby continued. “We’ve tried to show them every consideration including in how we communicate with them. And they have the right to ingress and egress to their private property. To my knowledge, they were never promised more general access to the allotment.”
Libby also acknowledged there was an incident between Forest Service officials and Kit Laney’s brother and nephew, but said the matter was not one of harassment.
“There was an incident where law enforcement officers attempted to stop Kit’s brother,” Libby said. “And they just wanted to know who he was and what his business was. He refused to stop and subsequently a supervisory law enforcement officer went to the Laney residence to explain the circumstances surrounding that incident and to request future cooperation.”
Libby said the incident occurred on Forest Service property. The Gila National Forest normally has only three agents to monitor the 3.3 million-acre wilderness, but nearly a dozen more have been brought in from other forests on a rotating basis to deal with the impoundment and area closure.

Thomas J. Baird can be reached at tbaird@scsun-news.com.

Judge Keeps Rancher in Jail

LAS CRUCES— Rancher Kit Laney remained behind bars Wednesday after a federal judge refused a second request to release him pending a trial on charges that he assaulted Forest Service officers.
Federal Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen said she remained concerned that Laney would return to his Diamond Bar grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest and try to disrupt a court-ordered roundup of his cattle.
The original two charges against the southwestern New Mexico cattleman multiplied when a grand jury on Tuesday handed down an eight-count indictment, including two counts of obstruction of justice, five counts of assaulting and interfering with federal officers and employees and one count of interfering with a court order.
The charges stem largely from a March 14 incident in the Gila, when Laney is suspected of charging his horse at Forest Service law enforcement officers and pushing several as he tried to tear down a corral holding his impounded cattle.
A U.S. District Court judge last year ordered the cattle rounded up from the Diamond Bar allotment where Laney grazed them without a permit and later found him in contempt of court.
Molzen refused at Laney's initial March 16 detention hearing to release him on bond. Molzen said she considered him a potential danger to Forest Service officers during the controversial cattle roundup, expected to last several more weeks.
On Wednesday, assistant federal public defender Jane Greek asked Molzen to consider releasing Laney to a third-party. She recommended Otero County rancher Bob Jones, a former president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association and a former member of the state Game Commission.
Jones said his remote ranch on Otero Mesa in southeastern New Mexico is more than a six-hour drive east of the Diamond Bar.
Molzen, citing Laney's earlier statements that he would not interfere with the roundup, said she was not confident that the rancher would stay away from the Diamond Bar allotment and the roundup.
"I may be mistaken. Nobody said judges are perfect," Molzen said to the rancher, his ankles shackled and his wrists handcuffed to a chain around his waist. "But I'm doing this to protect the community and to protect you."
Greek, who said the charges against Laney did not constitute "the allegation of the century," said she would appeal Molzen's decision. The magistrate said she would try to schedule another hearing before a federal judge as early as next week.
Sherry Farr, Laney's ranching partner and ex-wife, said she suspected that the judge's tough stance was based on the fact that Laney was found in contempt of an earlier federal court order not to graze cattle on the Diamond Bar allotment.
Still, Farr said she was "shocked"' by the judge's ruling.
"Is this America where you are innocent until proven guilty? It sure doesn't seem like it," Farr said.
Referring to the March 14 altercation, Farr said: "One unarmed man against four law enforcement officers armed to the teeth and he's a danger to them?"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Wormuth argued strenuously against Laney's release, saying that Jones, who is also president of a private property rights group called the Paragon Foundation, was not "impartial enough" to be a custodian of the rancher.
Wormuth also said Laney did not appear to respect the court's authority to remove cattle from the Diamond Bar because Laney continues to talk about fighting the case.
One of the new obstruction charges against the rancher stems from his March 12 filing of a criminal complaint in Magistrate Court against the Forest Service contractor rounding up Laney's cattle.
"They are still fighting this case, which is over by all legal means," Wormuth said, "and I don't think they've come to grips with that."
The Forest Service on Tuesday publicly advertised its intent to sell 251 of Laney's cattle.

Editorial: Grazing Hot Air Is Renewable Resource

If cattle could graze on hyperbole, Catron County would be an economic miracle. The hot air is generated by radicals at either end of the issue of public lands use.
Speaking from the right, the Catron County Commission on Monday declared that environmentalists are "slowly destroying our public lands."
The blast was prompted by the latest chapter in the sad saga of Kit Laney. He and his now ex-wife Sherry Farr started a cattle operation in the Gila National Forest with the expectation they could run enough cattle to make it pay.
Ledger-sheet health and rangeland health, however, don't necessarily coincide. In the interests of the latter, the Forest Service reduced by almost 75 percent the number of cattle Laney could run, putting the Diamond-Bar Ranch, as the County Commission put it, at the point of financial ruin.
The commission blames environmentalists. "For the past 20 years, the U.S. Forest Service has been held hostage by extreme environmental groups, ... whereas ranchers are the actual stewards of the land and have been for generations." Local ranchers' herds have been reduced by 25,000 head in the last decade, the commission asserted.
That's about as skewed as the old environmentalist battle cry "cattle-free by ¹93." According to Forest Service officials, herds clear across the Gila have been cut from 25,737 to 17,135 -- a reduction of 8,602 in 10 years.
Many ranchers are the best stewards they know how to be of the rangelands that sustain their families. But public land is the business of the public. Public land managers have to listen to a public that includes environmentalists and make decisions in the interest of the land's long-term health. That doesn't make them hostages.
Tighter regulation was part of the ranching business that wasn't factored into Laney's plans. But when, instead of cutting his losses, he asserted a right to run cattle on public lands without a permit, without regulation, he moved outside the realm of bad business judgment to futile political statement.
That -- not environmentalists -- is why the feds rounded up his cows.