As some of you may recall I currently have a self-represented appeal of a camping ticket I received in SW Colorado, during June of 2010. That case is now before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. I've recently put out a Press Release, click through for the text.
UPDATE: A decision was issued March 20, unfavorable - the 10th Circuit continuing to refuse to answer to my arguments, nor to take responsibility for the consequences of the lower court's failure. Here's the Court's decision: 10th Circuit Decision on Camping Ticket
Long Time Activist/Foreclosure Victim awaits 10th Circuit Decision on Public Access Issues
Former Washington Resident Challenges Colorado Camping Ticket Citing DOJ Constitutional Inequality with Regards to Foreclosure Causing Financial Regulatory FAILURE
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Cortez, CO, March 7, 2013: A decision to protest, in Federal Court, a June 2010 Camping Ticket in the San Juan National Forest has proved to be an epic lesson for an aging outdoorsman and activist in the failure of the United States Department of Justice to practice the most basic principles of the Constitution, Law, and Professional Conduct. “I started out just trying to make a point that it didn’t make sense to be ticketing victims of the foreclosure crisis when the perpetrators were unprosecuted, or bailed out, but it has turned into a byzantine nightmare of one government failure after another repeatedly fraudulently justified as the failings of a pro se, self represented individual citizen.” said Douglas Tooley. Tooley continues, “I thought the most basic aspect of our system of law was our ability to petition our government for violation of basic, universal rights, but I’ve discovered that Federal Legal Practice is in fact vengeful self-serving pool of bureaucratic and corporate back scratchers.” “Though the ticketing officer himself, part-time Forest Protection Officer of the Year Biologist Chris Schultz was polite and professional, I’ve been threatened by other Forest Officers repeatedly, including in open court. I’ve had a warrant issued for my arrest based on mishandled appeal paperwork, and was subsequently arrested on that same warrant in spite of numerous attempts to resolve the matter AND PAYMENT OF THE JUSTIFYING FINE.” said Tooley. “My property was impounded illegally and, to date, a 14’ rowboat on a trailer is still in possession of a local towing company, Basin Towing, with no legal justification whatsoever.”Tooley, with no legal training other than the handling of his own recent bankruptcy, notes that “I’ve been reading some of the history and legal philosophy from the 17th and 18th centuries, and the big question of the day was how to respond to authority which held itself above responsibility, that question, unfortunately is once again very relevant today and it is crucial that we have this public discussion about these issues.”
Noting the importance of this topic Tooley observes: “I was camping in Moab the weekend before Ranger Brody Young was shot, during my visit I was subject to minor harassment by Federal Officials and witnessed another apparent case of same. Though there is no evidence that these heightened enforcement efforts were another instance of retaliation directed against myself these practices are clearly misguided and dangerous to the officers themselves, when, by chance, they focus upon an unstable individual.”
Tooley concludes noting that “Recent public land access cases in the Desert and Mountain West, from Arizona to Colorado have been spread across the partisan spectrum, it’s time to drop the partisan justification and demand responsible use, and management, of all public assets by all parties and to stop the divide and conquer techniques of the current, post Bush era, Department of Justice.”
10th Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 12-1335 on Appeal from US District Court – Colorado, Criminal Action No. 12-CR-00018-JLK/Magisterial Petty Offense No. 10-PO-00152-DLW.
