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| 5/15/2008 5:53:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Hawn turns self in on bison slaying charges
Texan owner of South Park ranch faces felony charges
Mike Potter
Staff Writer
Texas businessman Jeff Hawn was charged May 8 in the March slaying of 32 bison near Hartsel and faces one count of class 3 felony theft, one count of class 3 felony criminal mischief and 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, each a class 6 felony.
Hawn turned himself in to the Park County Jail on May 12 and bonded out, according to Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore.
Kobe Bryant's attorney
The Flume has also learned that he will appear at Park County Combined Court on May 19 for a bond hearing and will be represented by Denver-based attorney Pamela Mackey, the attorney who defended NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant in a 2003 sexual assault case in Eagle.
Mackey told The Flume that she wouldn't be commenting about the case.
Appearing in court telephonically on May 12, Mackey asked the court to allow Hawn to travel outside of the state and country for business.
According to court documents, the request was granted as long as a written itinerary is filed with the court before the trip.
The arrest warrant affidavit indicates that the bison had been killed over the course of a number of weeks. For instance, it states that on April 1 officers "retrieved a spent bullet from one of the wasted bison carcasses that had been shot weeks prior to the first contact with hunters at the Hawn property."
Calls to Hawn's cell phone and home and to his attorney have not been returned.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation also matched a bullet cartridge case found on Forest Service land near the scene of dead bison to a 30.06 rifle found in Hawn's home. A bullet also recovered from a dead bison was similar to a test bullet fired from Hawn's rifle, according to the affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Gore commended the detectives and animal control officers in the handling of the case.
"They put a lot of time and effort and did a really good job," he told The Flume.
Lawyer's letter
threatens possible hunt
Hawn's attorney for his civil case, Denver-based Stephen Csajaghy, wrote in a Jan. 28 letter addressed to Monte Downare, an owner of the animals, that the bison had trespassed onto Hawn's property for a number of weeks.
"As you are taking very little action to resolve this issue, there is little doubt that your buffalo will continue to trespass onto Mr. Hawn's property in the future. That is unacceptable," said the attorney's letter to Downare.
"Over the last six weeks, there have been over 1,000 head of your buffalo on Mr. Hawn's property. We have photographic proof that your buffalo have broken through gates and trespassed on Mr. Hawn's property on more than twenty (20) occasions over the last two months," said the letter.
"Additionally, as this problem has continued for the last six weeks and you indicated that you are unsure if you will be able to resolve the issue yourself, we are considering alternate remedies, such as allowing a hunt of any buffalo that come onto Mr. Hawn's property," said Csajaghy in the letter.
The letter did say that Csajaghy would rather resolve the situation amicably "without having to resort to such an action."
According to the affidavit for an arrest warrant, Hawn allowed individuals to hunt bison on the Hawn property that belonged to rancher Monte Downare.
In a Feb. 25 letter addressed to Antonino Salcedo, Hawn gave permission to Salcedo and his "Atzlan Native Community" colleagues, based in Gardner, Colo., to "remove the buffalo from my ranch."
"You may hunt them and remove them or you may remove them live and take them to the location of your choice," the letter stated.
The letter included directions to Hawn's property.
"I ask that you get started as quickly as possible," the letter said.
Hawn's letter
The letter to Salcedo also provides some insight into Hawn's feeling that the hunting was justified on his property.
"The attached map shows the location of my fence lines, which were confirmed to be legal fences by Park County law enforcement as recently as December 2007. As confirmed by Park County law enforcement as well as Bureau of Land Management personnel, no governmental entity has jurisdiction over trespassing buffalo onto my private lands. As a result, it is up to me, as the landowner, to determine how to remove the buffalo. My repeated efforts, and that of my attorney, to enlist the aid of the former owner of the buffalo have failed."
Undersheriff Gore said it wasn't clear to the investigators what Hawn meant by the "jurisdiction" statement in the letter.
It is unclear if Salcedo has been charged with anything. Gore declined to comment on whether charges would be brought against the hunters.
Civil lawsuit
In a civil lawsuit filed in early March, Hawn claimed the Downare's bison walked all over his property.
"On numerous separate occasions, herds of buffalo have broken through the fence and stampeded onto the Property to graze on the grass. The damage that the defendants' buffalo have caused to the Property is staggering. The fences are damaged and/or destroyed in more than fifty locations. The bent poles and broken wire has compromised the integrity of the entire fence. Additionally, the Defendants' buffalo have killed hundreds of trees on the property, including many trees near to the home that Mr. Hawn had professionally installed within the past year."
The lawsuit also states that the bison "knocked the TV and satellite Internet dishes off line" and caused additional damage to solar panels.
The lawsuit states that Hawn had a legal fence around his property at the time of the trespasses.
Fencing out
Colorado is a "fence out" state, meaning property owners are charged with the task of fencing their property to keep livestock out. The rancher isn't required to fence his or her livestock in.
According to Colorado state law, a lawful fence is a "well constructed three barbed wired fence with a substantial post set at a distance of approximately twenty feet apart, and sufficient to turn ordinary horses and cattle, with all gates equally as good as the fence..."
The fence was unable to keep the bison off of Hawn's property.
Downare told The Flume last month that the fence constructed by Hawn wasn't a legal fence.
He also said that whenever their bison crossed over onto Hawn's property, they were recovered quickly.
"Any time a buffalo was on their property and we were called, we definitely went over there and got them off," he said.
Counter claim
In a counterclaim to Hawn's lawsuit filed in court on April 17, the Downares claimed Hawn conspired with his attorney to have the animals killed.
The names of the 14 people held in connection with the hunting were revealed in the arrest affidavit as Antonino Salcedo, Tomas Itsa Shash, Collin Emory Tonozzi, Zachary Richard Rolloff, Mark W. Akins, Russell James Akins, Nathaniel Joel Herbst, Jesus Antonio Cisneros, Mark Dennis Quintana, Jon Lee Duran, Paul Bryan Borquez, Carson Levi Ford, Kenneth Scott Rathbun and Chet Gladstone. Twelve weapons were confiscated from the detained individuals, said the affidavit.
Sequence of events
In the affidavit, the affiant, Detective Sergeant Sven Bonnelycke of the Park County Sheriff's Office, said that on March 19 at shortly before noon, Tracy Downare called in to report that someone was shooting the Downares' bison at 10731 Union Creek Road in Park County. That address is for property known as the Norman Ranch, and Hawn bought the property in November 2007, said Bonnelycke in the affidavit. By shortly after 1 p.m. that day, the 14 people had been detained, and by 3 p.m. Salcedo had delivered to officers his letter from Hawn granting him and others permission to hunt on the Hawn property, which is managed by caretakers John and Roberta Norman.
Interviews with Salcedo indicated that Salcedo met Norman, the caretaker, when Norman came into Papa Joe's General Store "inquiring about buffalo management," according to the affidavit.
Salcedo gave his telephone number to Norman, and Hawn later contacted Salcedo at that number.
On March 19, three bison gut piles were found on the Hawn property, eight dead bison were found on Bureau of Land Management property, four dead bison were found on U.S. Forest Service property, 14 dead bison were found on property owned by Catherine Pimm, and three bison gut piles were found on property owned by Robert Lemm.
"While investigating, the officers found that 10 bison had been shot recently by the hunters with the intent to butcher and utilize the meat and hides, and that as many as 16 bison had been shot weeks prior to the hunt and had been wasted and left to rot," said the affidavit. "Ten of those rotting carcasses were in plain view of Jeffrey Hawn's residence."
Of the 16 bison shot weeks prior, it was confirmed that seven cow bisons had unborn calves in utero, it said.
"Monte Downare has stated that all of the 20 cow bison killed on the property were bred and would have calved in 15 to 20 days."
Salcedo said in an interview that Hawn had told him that he, Hawn, had killed two bison prior to Salcedo's arrival at the property, said the affidavit.
The value of the Downares' killed bison was $77,000, it said.
In addition, the affidavit indicated that in early March corrals were being built on the Hawn ranch to capture the bison live. Hawn paid Salcedo $2,000 before the corrals were built, and that was to be used for supplies and "to repair the existing corrals on Hawn's property with the intention of corralling and removing the bison live." However, then Salcedo contacted Hawn and requested more money, and Hawn told Salcedo that Salcedo and his colleagues had one week to remove the bison or Hawn would have hunters come in and remove the bison for a fee.
- Tom Locke contributed to this article
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