The Great Cattle-Gate Case ends with Coloradan pleading no contest and pointing fingers at southern Utah power brokers

The alleged crime occurred on April Fools’ Day 2017, when a corral gate was closed on Lime Ridge in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, a move San Juan County prosecutors described as a calculated attempt to kill cattle and disrupt a livestock operation. Not exactly a capital offense but worthy of a felony conviction and prison time, in the eyes of local authorities who see attacks on ranching as a threat to southeastern Utah’s culture, custom and commerce. The case came to an end exactly two years later in a Monticello courtroom Monday, when the alleged malefactor, Mark Franklin, pleaded “no contest” to two misdemeanors in a deal with the prosecution. The “plea in abeyance” means the charges will be dismissed after one year if Franklin commits no other offenses. It would be inaccurate, however, to say Franklin, a 63-year-old resident of Durango, Colo., and his wife, environmental activist Rose Chilcoat, have not paid a hefty price for what they see as a trivial act that was trumped up into a major criminal case as payback for her years of pro-wilderness activism. The case arose after rancher Zane Odell discovered a gate had been closed on his corral on state trust lands just off U.S. Highway 163 west of Bluff. According to court testimony, a trap camera he had rigged to the fence captured an image of a trailer he presumed to belong to the gate-closer, who he suspected was trying to keep his cattle from their water source inside, even though a section of the corral fence was down. Two days later, Franklin and Chilcoat, while heading home from a weekend trip to the southeastern Utah’s Valley of the Gods, stopped by the corral, pulling the trailer that appeared to be the same as one in the picture. Odell and his hands confronted the couple, barred them from leaving and summoned a sheriff’s deputy, who let Franklin and Chilcoat depart after taking Franklin’s statement. A few weeks later, Laws filed a slew of criminal charges against the couple, leading with “attempted wanton destruction of livestock,” a second-degree felony that can be punished by up to 15 years in prison...MORE