jAZ
01-27-2006, 12:37 PM
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/01-25-2006/2249000886f24712.html
Two Salvadoran immigrants take formal possession of seized ranch
(AP) - BISBEE, Arizona-Two Salvadoran immigrants are now the legal owners of an Arizona ranch near the Mexican border that was seized from an anti-immigrant activist accused of pistol-whipping them.
Documents granting the 70-acre ( 28-hectare) ranch once owned by Casey Nethercott to Fatima del Socorro Leiva Medina and Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales were signed by a Cochise County judge on Monday.
Nethercott is serving a five-year prison term in Texas stemming from a 2003 incident on a Texas ranch where he confronted Leiva and Mancia and was accused of pistol-whipping them. He was acquitted of assault but convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Nethercott was a member of the group Ranch Rescue, which works to protect private property along the southern U.S. border from incursions by illegal immigrants.
The Southern Poverty Law Center brought suit against Nethercott on behalf of the two immigrants. Nethercott did not respond and a Texas judge ordered him to pay $500,000. Also named in the suit was Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue, and the owners of the Texas ranch, Joe and Betty Sutton. The Suttons settled for $100,000. Foote also didn't offer a defense and was ordered to pay $500,000.
Leiva and Mancia were illegal immigrants from El Salvador. They received temporary legal status in the United States as crime victims and are seeking visas to stay longer.
They don't plan to hold on to the ranch, said Kelley Bruner, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Instead the property near Douglas, Arizona, will be sold, with the proceeds going to the immigrants.
2006-01-25T22:51:30Z
Two Salvadoran immigrants take formal possession of seized ranch
(AP) - BISBEE, Arizona-Two Salvadoran immigrants are now the legal owners of an Arizona ranch near the Mexican border that was seized from an anti-immigrant activist accused of pistol-whipping them.
Documents granting the 70-acre ( 28-hectare) ranch once owned by Casey Nethercott to Fatima del Socorro Leiva Medina and Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales were signed by a Cochise County judge on Monday.
Nethercott is serving a five-year prison term in Texas stemming from a 2003 incident on a Texas ranch where he confronted Leiva and Mancia and was accused of pistol-whipping them. He was acquitted of assault but convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Nethercott was a member of the group Ranch Rescue, which works to protect private property along the southern U.S. border from incursions by illegal immigrants.
The Southern Poverty Law Center brought suit against Nethercott on behalf of the two immigrants. Nethercott did not respond and a Texas judge ordered him to pay $500,000. Also named in the suit was Jack Foote, the founder of Ranch Rescue, and the owners of the Texas ranch, Joe and Betty Sutton. The Suttons settled for $100,000. Foote also didn't offer a defense and was ordered to pay $500,000.
Leiva and Mancia were illegal immigrants from El Salvador. They received temporary legal status in the United States as crime victims and are seeking visas to stay longer.
They don't plan to hold on to the ranch, said Kelley Bruner, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Instead the property near Douglas, Arizona, will be sold, with the proceeds going to the immigrants.
2006-01-25T22:51:30Z