Western Wyo icon gets his day in court
GIL BRADY Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Monday, November 13, 2006 12:00 am
JACKSON -- He has been a Bondurant rancher, avant-garde livestock breeder, beef jerky producer, Appaloosa horse-lover, published critic, amateur prospector, wandering cowboy, frequent gadfly and former jailbird on appeal before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
But last Thursday afternoon, the irrepressible Terrence "Terry" Amrein, 60, an ex-con caught between fading icon and dapper eccentric, appeared destined for further controversy outside the heavily guarded Clifford P. Hansen federal courthouse here.
"America cannot afford more federal embarrassment by their court system," Amrein said moments before entering court, a produce box crammed with papers and records in his arms. "They can't intimidate me."
Amrein's latest legal drama stems from his recent experiences while camping with horses in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
In 1993, in what he says was a humane livestock experiment that produced "waste-fat-free beef," Amrein lost an appeal of a lower court's conviction of cruelty to animals before the state Supreme Court.
Writing as the court's lone dissenter, Justice Walter Urbigkit write: "This case provides a continuing examination of the campaign by certain state (including judicial) officials against Terrence Amrein."
Last June, national forest rangers began citing Amrein after finding him camped with eight Appaloosa horses. Officials reported finding Amrein sleeping one morning in his old pickup near several temporary horse corrals.
Between June 5 and June 23, rangers cited Amrein 10 times for charges ranging from having "unauthorized livestock on national forest land" to his "residing on national forest land without a special-use permit."
In court Thursday, rangers Shane Wasem and Ken Almberg testified that horses under Amrein's control had also polluted a creek and damaged a "natural feature of the United States." After being told more than once to remove his horses, the rangers said, Amrein was also cited for failure "to remove unauthorized livestock from national forest lands."
Testimony and records suggest that two horses under Amrein's care died in the forest: one due to dehydration and malnourishment, and another after being "gut-shot" to death around June 23.
"Quite honestly, I was appalled by the way he was keeping his horses out there and by the condition of those horses," Wasem said under oath. The supervising forest ranger also testified that the place where Amrein's horses were corralled was "down to the bare dirt."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Conder produced pictures suggesting a waterway running through one of the corrals had come into close contact with horse urine and feces.
In a sheriff's report, Amrein told investigators he suspected Wasem of involvement in the shooting of his horse because "Wasem had lost in court and wanted to get even."
Records show the previous day Magistrate Judge Jim Lubing had dismissed a Forest Service injunction to have Amrein and his horses removed from federal lands.
At the time of the incident, court testimony and police records indicate that Wasem was on vacation in either California or Oregon. An inspection of Amrein's dead horse days afterward showed a protruding exit wound on one side of the already-skinned animal, whose bullet-riddled hide Amrein brought to court on Thursday.
During a surreal courtroom exchange, Amrein swore under oath, while also cross-examining himself, that at all times he complied with forest regulations and had informed Wasem of his plans to conduct "mineral studies" before setting out for camp in the Spread Creek and Toppings Lake areas.
Lubing reminded the defendant/witness that it was his job, not Amrein's, to determine who complied with the law.
Lubing questioned Conder about Wasem's own reports showing that Wasem and Amrein had met on May 2, 2006. On that day, records show, Amrein informed the ranger of his plans "to camp on Spread and Willow Creek" with his horses and do "some type of work on the National Forest."
The verdict
The Byzantine regulations of federal parks here did not escape the judge's notice before he rendered his verdict. Lubing sided with Amrein's questioning of "unauthorized" in charges alleging Amrein did not obtain a special-use permit to graze or pasture his livestock on federal land.
"What if a college student was out there ... with horses ... picking plants during the summer?" Lubing asked Conder, challenging the government's implication that Amrein had commercial intentions when he informed Wasem of his summer plans in May.
Lubing also allowed Amrein to enter more than 120 items into evidence, including a handmade pedigree of his horses' bloodline. Under oath, Amrein told the court that the pedigree traced back to horses bred by "the Shoshone nation."
Amrein also testified that his "mineral research" was not a commercial ambition, but rather a hobby to explore whether gravel from creek beds could line the shoulders along 42 miles of new pathways scheduled to be built in Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton forest.
However, before Lubing had even finished announcing his verdict, Amrein, representing himself at a table of odd and scattered exhibits -- including rocks, American Indian spiritual tracts and two animal hides -- told the judge he would appeal being found guilty of three federal violations pertaining to pollution of a stream and damaging a natural feature of the United States.
In his verdict, Lubing paused to admonish both the defendant and the government.
"You have a penchant for wanting to test those in authority," the judge began, indicating Amrein's many exhibits, "entering into evidence articles from those who became famous testing authority. On the other hand, (federal) regulations aren't written that clearly."
Lubing also dismissed Amrein's conspiratorial accusations regarding "a pattern of abuse by certain forest officials," but did praise him for having produced good beef jerky in the past and for collecting about 30 to 40 gallons of trash from the forest.
Amrein had testified that he believed forest rangers were "deliberately misapplying the law" against him in retaliation for his outspoken criticisms of federal land and wildlife management policies.
Conder admitted to being pleased by the verdict, but declined further comment until after sentencing.
As he had inside, outside of court, before getting into his battered rig to fetch his two remaining and prized Appaloosas grazing in a friend's secret pasture, Amrein said: "I'm not guilty. I've been enormously wronged."
Despite having seven charges dropped, Amrein still faces up to 18 months in jail and $15,000 in fines, or both, for polluting streams and damaging national forest features. Sentencing for Amrein has been set for Dec.12.