Another random story from the area:
Quote: "Trespassers Plead Not Guilty
Seven people accused of trespassing on military land near the Groom base were arraigned in Justice Court in Alamo on Jan. 12. Three pleaded "No Contest" and accepted their fines of about $300 each. Four pleaded Not Guilty, and their trial is scheduled for Mar. 2. The four contend that although they did cross the line, it was entirely accidental, the result of confusing signals and a misread map.
On Jan. 2, these seven traveling in three vehicles drove beyond the Keep Out signs on the well-maintained Groom Lake Road and up to the guard shack about a half mile beyond. This was their first visit to the area, and they obviously had not read this reporter's "Area 51 Viewer's Guide," which advises against crossing the line. Trying to follow a crude map to the Freedom Ridge trailhead, the group whizzed past the often photographed sign forest forbidding trespass (and photography) and containing such memorable but evidently unread phrases as "Use of Deadly Force Authorized."
There was no place to turn around at the signs, the intruders claim, and as they passed a white Jeep Cherokee, they said a guard inside waved to them, as though saying "Come on in!" Naturally, upon arrival at the guard house, they were descended upon by a gaggle of excessively armed cammo dudes who were not prepared to give helpful directions and certainly were not versed on any of the social graces. The immediate arrest of the offenders, no matter how old, young, naive or harmless, was apparently the only option available in their very limited emotional repetoir.
This reporter and two other hikers happened to witness the incident while climbing Freedom Ridge ourselves. As soon as we understood what was happening, we aborted our ascent and broke out the telescopes to watch the festivities. The ratio of armed cammo dudes to naive intruders was easily two to one. We watched as the trespassers--four men and two woman of varying ages--stood around their cars for over an hour looking frustrated and confused while tough men with big assault weapons milled about looking equally bored and a bit embarrassed. A state trooper arrived first, followed by Sgt. Lamoreaux of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Dept. Forms were signed, and the prisoners were turned over to the Sheriff for more advanced forms of humiliation.
The intruders were thoughtfully provided with handcuffs and leg- irons (for their own safety, no doubt) and were taken in an Air Force van to the palatial, brand-spanking-new Lincoln County Detention Center in Pioche. This nearly empty, high-tech hoosegow, otherwise known as the Jail That Ate Lincoln County, was built with the intent to house other people's prisoners for profit. That was before the bottom fell out of the captive housing market, and the county now has to scrape for any prisoners it can get.
In this case it graciously accommodated Connie Ruiz, her daughter Sissy and son David, Connie's neighbor Bill Fitzgerald, his sons Kevin and Tim, and a friend Gilbert Narvaiz. Hardened criminals, all. They claim that at the Detention Center they were forced to stand facing a blank wall for over an hour and a half, even one man who had an injured ankle, and were denied the use of the bathroom for many hours after their arrest. They said they were strip searched (because, presumably, you never can know in which body cavity those devious trespassers might be hiding drugs or weapons) and were given stylish orange jumpsuits to wear (as you've seen rakishly modeled by Charlie Manson). The seven wasted away in jail for about eight hours while Bill's wife and Connie's husband three hours away in Las Vegas tried to hunt up $4200 in cash on a Sunday night to bail out their loved ones. $200 more to tow each of the three vehicles brought the total bar tab to $4800 for this very engrossing weekend experience. The adventure was all the more educational for several of the participants had never before seen the inside of a jail cell.
Some hysterical activists might cry "overkill" and "law enforcement run amok." Well, maybe just a tad.
In the meantime, after witnessing the arrest but still not knowing who these people were, this reporter got on the horn to his contacts to tell them about the event. ("Seven People Arrested in Groom Lake Incident," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Jan. 5.) He then headed down the highway to Pioche, arriving at the Detention Center sometime after the prisoners did. The duty officer behind a seamless expanse of bullet-proof glass refused to give any information about the prisoners, even whether they were being held at the detention center at all, so this reporter was forced to wait outside in the sub-freezing night for an uncertain release. And wait. And wait. In his delirium and creeping hypothermia, the reporter was transformed, in a metaphysical sense, from a mild-mannered Bill Bixby into a raging green Incredible Hulk. Alas, when the prisoners were finally bailed out around 4 am, the Hulk was sound asleep in the back of his car and did not get a chance to meet them. He learned who they were only when one of the seven called him a few days later, and the story they told further enraged the Hulk's already green condition.
Doctor, help me. Ever since spending the night in the parking lot of the Lincoln County Detention Center, I have been afflicted by the uncontrollable urge to do violent damage to both the anonymous cammo dudes and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Dept. I don't mean to bomb, shoot, dismember or otherwise physically harm these noble defenders of the law; I want to utterly destroy them at the very core of their being. I WANT TO CUT THEIR FUNDING. I know this is an irrational impulse. Each of these people, as individuals, are probably nice folks, but when you throw together a lot of decent people "just following orders" what you sometimes get, on the whole, is a sadistic monster with no collective conscience or critical judgment.
The case of the seven trespassers has become, for this reporter, a timely symbolic example that dovetails naturally with the fight to save the viewpoints and expose the nonexistent base at Groom Lake. The four who pleaded Not Guilty must continue to make their own decisions, but I encourage them not to go down quietly. At the trial on Mar. 2, they will be accorded all the protections of any other defendant, including the right to subpoena witnesses. The first witness I would call, and that any good lawyer would also want to haul into court, is that cammo dude in the white Cherokee who waved at the visitors as they passed. "What was your intent?" Perry Mason would ask. "Were you giving them an implied consent to enter your area?"
If this well-armed paramilitary force patrolling public land refuses to officially exist, then this is a good opportunity to bring them out into the open. "Could you please state for the court your name and who you work for?" Mason would ask. The Las Vegas press will be present at this promising trial, and even a few in the national corps might be interested in meeting a genuine cammo dude face to face. They are, after all, so hard to pin down in the field, always running away as they do. With a bloody land seizure hearing (or two) expected in the meantime, everyone should be whipped into a glorious frenzy by the time Mar. 2 rolls along. What if the cammo dudes don't honor the subpoena? Then the case falls apart. Implied consent is a critical issue here, and if the government fails to supply this one essential witness, it would be obstructing a legitimate defense.
These four have been crudely treated and are not guilty of the charges against them. Although they did cross the line, they followed each other like lemmings, in clouds of dust and under conditions of limited warning where there was inadequate opportunity to read the signs. The only person who might be seen as having control over the situation was the driver of the first vehicle, who has already pleaded No Contest. The others either were passengers in other people's cars--and who thus had no control at all over the situation--or were drivers of following vehicles who made a legitimate error that any law-biding citizen could easily have fallen victim to. ("The guy in front must know where he is going, and that nice fellow in the Cherokee is waving us along.") The authorities, if they are smart, will drop the case to avoid their ultimate and totally publicized humiliation. If they are not smart (as is common among authorities), then they should be ready to fight a high-profile battle, not to mention the seething greenness of this reporter.
Hulk wants blood."
Quote: "Final wisdom: If it says, "Restricted Area," "No Trespassing," "Keep Out," and "Use of Deadly Force Authorized," then keep going, don't worry about it, God will protect you."
Don't look at me like that!
