The land transfer was made to satisfy judgments in a lawsuit. Mr.
Nethercott is serving a 5 year sentence in a Texas prison FULL CASE FILE HERE
"Certainly it's poetic justice that these undocumented workers (WFT- Illegal
Aliens) own this land," said Morris S. Dees Jr., co-founder and chief trial
counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., and Co-Counsel the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund 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."
Southern Poverty Law Center - Legal Action
The surrender of the ranch came at a time that the governors of Arizona and New Mexico
declared a state of emergency because of the influx of illegal immigrants and related
crime along the border and within the United States.
Bill Dore, a Douglas resident briefly affiliated with Ranch Rescue who is still active in
border-patrolling, 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 that until
a decision was made on their applications, they could stay and work in the United States
on a year-to-year basis.
The two immigrants accused Casey Nethercott of threatening them and of hitting Mr.
Mancía with a pistol, charges that 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 jail time in California for assault. He is now serving a
five-year sentence in a Texas prison because of the gun possession, which is illegal for a
felon.
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."
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.
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.
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." |
