Friday, August 25, 2017

New report faults controversial BLM agent for mishandling evidence

While Dan Love was in charge of Bureau of Land Management law enforcement for Utah, rare items known as moqui marbles appeared all over the agency’s Salt Lake City headquarters, apparently as gifts and office decor. A new report targeting the embattled federal lawman concluded Love misappropriated the strange, naturally-occurring globes, which were evidence in an ongoing criminal probe, and instructed a subordinate to conceal his misconduct and thwart a congressional enquiry. The Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted the report Thursday at the request of House Natural Resource Committee, chaired by Utah’s Rep. Rob Bishop. Committee staff confirmed the unnamed officer implicated in the report is the controversial Love, who the BLM has since transferred. For years, Utah politicians have singled out Love as the embodiment of federal overreach on public lands, citing his arrogance toward local sheriffs as lawmakers sought ways to limit BLM law enforcement. Love supervised the undercover sting that led to the 2009 arrests of two dozen people for trafficking looted artifacts and the failed effort in 2014 to impound Cliven Bundy’s cattle from public lands around Bunkerville, Nev. The family of James Redd, a suspect in the artifacts case, blame Love for the Blanding physician’s suicide following armed officers’ raid on his home and the interrogation Love conducted in Redd’s garage. The Redds’ wrongful death lawsuits have been thrown out of court...more

Embedded below are the two OIG reports, with the most recent being first. 



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtQm1XSHJZX01ycm8/view?usp=sharing

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