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Trial to begin in border vigilante case
By Lynn Brezosky
Associated Press Writer
HEBBRONVILLE, Texas (AP)--A South Texas couple says the U.S. Border Patrol hasn't been much help in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants who make their way into the country across their ranch land.
After continuing to find broken fences, food containers and other messes from migrants, Joe and Betty Lou Sutton last year called on Ranch Rescue, an Arizona-based group of armed vigilantes who believe citizens should protect the U.S.-Mexican border themselves.
Now, the Suttons' ranch is at the center of a federal court case alleging abuses against migrants.
Jury selection began June 7 in a trial for Ranch Rescue volunteer Casey Nethercott. The Douglas, Ariz., man is accused of pistol-whipping two Salvadorans who attempted to cross the Suttons' land. Nethercott has pleaded innocent to felony counts of assault, unlawful detention and unlawful possession of a weapon.
A civil trial naming the Suttons and Ranch Rescue among the defendants is scheduled for August.
The case is the latest against members of such vigilante groups.
Ranch Rescue is one of at least three citizen patrol groups who say they are patriots fighting what they call a homeland invasion. They have been called to private lands more frequently because of Border Patrol crackdowns on more populated portions of the 2,000-mile border.
Nethercott, 35, joined Ranch Rescue's Sutton Ranch mission, dubbed "Operation Falcon." On March 18, the volunteers set up camp, donned camouflage and prepared equipment that included assault rifles, handguns, night-vision devices and Nethercott's Rottweiller, prosecutors said.
Fatima Leiva and Edwin Mancia were crossing the ranch, reportedly on their way to family and jobs in Houston, when Nethercott's dog attacked them and Nethercott hit Mancia with the back of his handgun, injuring him, prosecutors said. Nethercott is accused of making the couple repeatedly kneel and stand, and interrogated them before releasing them outside the ranch gate.
Jim Hogg County police spotted the couple on the highway that passes the ranch, and brought them to the Border Patrol, which contacted the Mexican consul in Laredo, Daniel Hernandez Josef.
Ten days before, four Mexicans who were found walking barefoot from the ranch had been taken in.
"The Mexicans told me their story and I thought, well, some crazy rancher," Hernandez Josef said. "Then about 10 days later, the same thing happened."
Nethercott's lawyer, Joseph Jacobson, said his client was taken in on shoddy evidence, including an unfair police lineup.
"People were shown a lineup in which Casey is the only person with a shaved head and, of six people, one of two that didn't have any facial hair," he said.
Ranch Rescue, meanwhile has continued its patrols and dropped its support for Nethercott. Jack Foote, an Army veteran and a Ranch Rescue founder, accused Nethercott of stealing Ranch Rescue equipment and called him a "dangerous psychopath."
"The Ranch Rescue network does not get involved in many issues," Foote said. "We are strictly about private property rights."
On his website, Foote recruits "soldiers" from all over the United States who sign on to catch migrants and then turn them over to authorities.
"Our nation is being invaded, and these folks are on the front line of a silent war," Foote writes on his website.
The Suttons defend their decision to call Ranch Rescue, as immigrants are still making their way through their land, Betty Lou Sutton said.
During a recent tour of her ranch, Betty Lou Sutton kicked aside mesquite branches to reveal one of the campsites.
The evidence was clear: Empty cans of sardines and beer, an empty bag of corn chips, a punched-out blister pack of baby aspirin. Dangling shreds of plastic bags showed an attempt at tenting against a rare South Texas rain.
"We've found them taking baths in the cattle trough and shampooing their hair," she said. "Cattle don't like soap. They stole our chicken and eggs too, so we don't raise them anymore."
Joe Sutton said the migrants are stealing his American dream.
"Most of them are Mexicans and they're damn good people, but at least they ought to do it legally," he said. "It's just the fact that it's trespassing. That, in effect, is a crime. It is against the law of the state of Texas."
Date: 6/24/04
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