|
|
- Jury Orders anti-illegal immigration Rancher to Pay trespassing Mex-American Hunting Party
SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. -- An anti-illegal immigration activist accused of threatening to shoot a Mexican-American family of hunters with an assault rifle and using racial slurs against them was ordered to pay them $98,000. A civil jury held rancher Roger Barnett only partly responsible, saying some of the blame lay with the man who sued and the man's father. Ronald Morales and his father, Arturo, were with his two young daughters and their friend when Barnett confronted them near his Douglas-area ranch and accused them of trespassing Oct. 30, 2004. Morales' lawsuit claims they were legally crossing land Barnett leases from the state. The Moraleses are U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.
Barnett, who claims to have detained more than 10,000 migrants in the last 10 years, denied threatening the hunting party. He testified that he only took out his AR-15 rifle because the adults in the group were carrying rifles.
"In the Morales family, the father taught the son to trespass, and now the father's teaching the daughters how to trespass in blatant disregard for the law," said Donald Barnett, who was initially named in the suit but later dropped as a defendant. "I guess in this country, private property and a person's rights don't mean much any more."
The lawsuit was sponsored by the Border Action Network and the Southern Poverty Law Center, "civil rights" groups that have accused Barnett of acting as a vigilante and abusing illegal immigrants he detains on his ranch. Morales said he asked the Cochise County Attorney to press criminal charges against Barnett, but was told no jury would convict him.
- A Border Watcher Finds Himself Under Scrutiny
For years, Roger Barnett has holstered a pistol to his hip, tucked an assault rifle in his truck and set out over the scrub brush on his thousands of acres of ranchland near the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona to hunt illegal immigrants. "Immigrant rights" groups have filed lawsuits, accusing him of harassing and unlawfully imprisoning people he has confronted on his ranch near Douglas. “The Barnetts, probably more than any people in this country, are responsible for the vigilante movement as it now exists,” said Mark Potok, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- American Patrol Report
- Hispanics in the news - Citizenship status of suspect not reported
- Mexico Police Chief, Councilman Killed
- Mexican Drug Gang Runs Newspaper Ads
|