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Show -CR UT PRESORT -90 n 1 ,; 1 1 UTAH PRFHS ASGnr.lSnflN 467 E 300 S SLC UT fi4111.-?60A r rv Vernal g p) f Local law enforcement officers are calling the prosecution of those arrested last April as part of Operation Basin Roundup as "very successful." "There is close to 100 percent conviction with most for felony charges," said Chief Mike Hamner, Vernal City Police. Uintah County Attorney Harry Souvall said all Uintah County cases cas-es to date have resulted in felony pleas. A wife of a defendant was reduced re-duced to a misdemeanor because she was only holding a bag a marijuana. mari-juana. Another defendant was given a plea in abeyance based on corpus delicti. "A person cannot be found guilty based on their own admission without other evidence," Attorney Souvall said. In most cases defendants are getting get-ting 30 to 60 days jail with an average aver-age fine of $1,000, Souvall said. In one case a defendant was sentenced to prison. "We decided early on to plea bargain bar-gain on these cases," said Souvall. "We have been successful because we have been consistent in our prosecution." pros-ecution." Souvall admits there are some tough cases coming up. The Uintah Basin Roundup included in-cluded over 100 charges against over 70 adults and juveniles. The operation involved Uintah County law enforcement, the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Vernal resident selected as Chamber executive director A Vernal resident of two years was selected by the Vernal Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors to be the organization executive director. direc-tor. Lee Ann Morgan was selected from the 15 applicants for the directorship. direc-torship. Morgan said she was "honored and humbled" by her selection. "I am looking forward to being a part of the Chamber." She was born in New Zealand and has lived in numerous states. She attended at-tended Utah Technical College in Provo where she studied public relations rela-tions and consumer advocacy. She has a real estate license and is presently employed at First Security Bank. Her husband, Russel, is the court reporter in 8th District Court. Etta Place really Ann Bassett, v. k-AJ I "'-'" 7- 4 'X : -'"r 1 HISTORIAN DORIS Burton holds famous picture of the Sundance Kid and Etta Place before they went to South America. She believes be-lieves the woman in the picture is actually Ann Bassett. Law Enforcement, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Duchesne County law enforcement agencies as well as Vernal City and Roosevelt City Police. Twenty-four arrests were made in Uintah County. The status of those arrests in the courts are: Shad Stubbs pleaded to one count of distribution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony, sentence pending. Daphne Sweetin pleaded to one count of distribution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony, sentence pending. Leslie Wissiup pleaded to one count of distribution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony, sentenced to probation, fined and jail sentence. Brent Manwaring pleaded to distribution of a controlled substance, sub-stance, a third degree felony, sentenced sen-tenced to 30 month probation, 30 days jail. Jason Dansie pleaded to attempted at-tempted distribution of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor, sentence pending. Landon Smith pleaded to distribution dis-tribution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony held in abeyance; pleaded to possession of a controlled substance a class B misdemeanor, sentence pending; pleaded to possession of paraphernalia, parapher-nalia, a class B misdemeanor, sen- f ) O LEEANN MORGAN to be new Chamber executive director. "When we first drove through Vernal, the Chamber looked like a cute office. I thought I would like to work there." tence pending. Jimmy Godsey pleaded to distribution dis-tribution of a controlled substance, third degree felony, sentence pending. pend-ing. William Carmickle pleaded to distribution of a controlled substance sub-stance a third degree felony, sentenced sen-tenced to 0-5 years in the Utah State Prison. Siuao Luzitano pleaded to possession pos-session of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor, sentenced to two days jail and community service. ser-vice. Kenneth Estep pleaded to distribution dis-tribution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony, sentenced to 24. month probation, 45 days jail. Jamie Fisher pleaded to distribution distri-bution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony, sentenced to probation and 10 days jail. LeRoy Hatch pleaded to distribution distri-bution of a controlled substance , third degree felony, sentence pending. pend-ing. Cody Kendall pleaded to distribution distri-bution of a controlled substance, a third degree felony, sentence pend-, ing. Justin King pleaded to attempted attempt-ed distribution of a controlled substance, sub-stance, a class A misdemeanor, sentence sen-tence pending. Stanley Keebler, pleaded to distribution of a controlled substance, sub-stance, first degree felony; sentence pending. Joel Turner pleaded to three counts of distribution of a controlled con-trolled substance, second degree felonies, sentence pending. Cases are pending against Joseph Cranford, Troy Floyd, John Simmons, Kenneth Shelton, Warren Turner, Susan Warden and Kevin Broadhead. Continued on pag 2 IPDaoD tasks pemiDimg readlfless airea A draft Book Cliffs General Management Plan which recommends recom-mends the opening of the roadless area will take public comments until Sept. 15. A Vernal hearing will be July 29. The Division of State Lands and Forestry which manages the large blocks of state lands in the Book Cliffs is primarily concerned with generating revenue from the lands. A major recommendation of the by Steven Wallls Express Editor Butch Cassidy's girl friend who traveled with him to South America could have been the Uintah Basin's own Ann Bassett Local historian, Doris Burton, seems to think so and so do some of the over 100 people attending the National Outlaw and Lawmen Association Rendezvous in Vernal last week. Burton presented her theory to the Vernal group last Thursday and to the . Western OuUawmen's Association in Denver two weeks ago. Response to her theory was favorable. fa-vorable. Mrs. Burton, director of the Outlaw Trail and Regional History Center at the Uintah County Library, began to develop her theory the-ory about Ann Bassett about a year ago after a conversation with a man whose father was a cousin to Bob Mecks, member of the Wild Bunch. The man, a Mr. Meacham, came to the Outlaw Trail History Center looking for information on freighters. He claimed that members of the Wild Bunch worked as freighters through Nine Mile Canyon. The man said both Josie Morris and Ann Bassett were in love with Butch Cassidy and had a knock down drag out in his father's WEDNESDAY, July 29, 1992 Vernal. Utah 84078 100th Year No. 31 22 Pages Single Copy 50 --h &m m$mk NERVOUS SPRINGER spaniel inspects two unwelcome un-welcome raccoons on top of the fence of his Two raccoons call on nervous springer spaniel by Melanie Morrison Express writer "Otis," a springer spaniel owned by John and Jodene Perez of Vernal, took on a second job last week when he was awakened by two visitors visi-tors at his dog kennel. The visitors? Two raccoons perched on top of the fence that surrounds his home. Mrs. Perez went outside around 9 a.m. on Thursday to feed the family's fami-ly's dog when she glanced at two brown and black animals she thought were cats. As she ncared the dog kennel she could see that what she thought were cats actually turned out to be two young raccoons trying to figure out how their food stealing venture turned out so bad, and how they were going to get away from her and Otis. plan is to discontinue the roadless area designated for the southern part of the Book Cliffs and offer the land for mineral lease. It is proposed that the entire unit be open to mineral leasing without surface occupancy stipulations, unless stipulations are determined to be appropriate. Mineral development is the primary pri-mary revenue generating activity in the Book Cliffs Planning Unit, states the plan. "The purpose of local historian believes so pasture. "Mr. Meacham 's story seemed un- believable at first, and I thought this man had read too many outlaw books," Mrs. Burton said. "Then I took some books from the shelf to compare Etta's and Ann's picture." Etta Place is the name the Pinkerton Detective agency places on a woman in a picture with the Sundance Kid in New York before he, Butch and Place went to South America. That picture was compare with a picture of Ann Bassett who lived on her ranch on Blue Mountain. "The pictures were most covinc-ing, covinc-ing, both had a definite downward ELM seeCss DairacO tayeir; The Vernal District BLM office, sent out over 60 letters last week to determine the interest in buying BLM property on Diamond Mountain and in the Book Cliffs. The property is being offered to the public as part of an exchange for sale of three private ranches in the Book Cliffs. The proposal for the Cripple Cowboy Outfit is that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will acquire the ranch, exchange it for tracts of BLM lands elsewhere in Uintah County and then sell these Inside Kids Canal summer coolant. Page 13. Bear baiting. Page 12. Horseshoe tourney produces surprise victor. Page 21. Otis' visitors turned a relatively quiet neighborhood in Ashley Ward into chaos when neighbors were notified no-tified of the Perez's visitors. Video and still cameras were carried to the backyard by curious on-lookers and just hummed as the coons hung on for dear life and Otis continued to watch over them. The Division of Wildlife Resources office was notified as was Officer Marv Roberts, the Uintah County animal control officer. offi-cer. Officer Roberts responded to the call. His interest in the situation was Otis' protection. "Raccoons are wild animals. They will bite and they carry rabies. There is no quarantine time for wild animals. If bitten, the animal must be caught and its head sent in for testing. Meanwhile, the person who management planning is to provide for the orderly, integrated and highest high-est and best uses of the school institutional insti-tutional trust lands, resources and assets within the planning unit over time." The large land block in the Book Cliffs was obtained in a series of in-selections in-selections approved in 1963-65 and partial satisfaction of a school grant and through exchange. In the past the trust lands in the planning unit slope on the lower lip," she said. In i 1901 the Vernal Express reports that J Miss Bassett lett her home on Blue Mountain to travel to Texas. She returned re-turned two years later. The dates correspond to Cassidy's travels to South America, Mrs. Burton said. The pictures of Ann Bassett and Etta Place were analyzed by Dr. Thomas G. Kyle of Los Alamos, New Mexico, who works for NASA. He has worked out a computer com-puter analyst program where he can compare pictures to determine if they could be the same. He had determined de-termined that a California man was not Butch Cassidy despite some resemblances re-semblances Dr. Thomas concluded that the tracts to private parties to recoup a portion of their money. Uintah County Commissioners requested re-quested that BLM make the exchange ex-change to maintain the present level of private lands in the county. Presently 81 percent of the county is federal or state lands. The Cripple Cowboy Outfit is one of three ranches proposed in the Book Cliffs Conservation Initiative. The Graham Ranch has been acquired ac-quired by the Utah Division of Photo by Melanie Morrison Vernal kennel. The raccoon were removed without with-out injury to the dog. is bitten will have to go through the shots as a precaution," Officer Roberts stated. There have been many reports of raccoons near homes. Roberts said that they like to eat pet food and will often help themselves to the food. They are also notorious garden gar-den robbers. He recommends that a person not confront the raccoon, but to call either him or DWR. Let one of those agencies handle the problem. prob-lem. In order not to harm Otis, the racv coons had to be destroyed. Roberts said they were scared and may have fought with the dog, causing him injury. in-jury. Officer Roberts can be contacted through Central Dispatch by calling 789-4222. have been managed primarily for livestock grazing and mineral exploration ex-ploration and production. "It is important to recognize that the primary responsibility of the division di-vision is to the school and institutional institu-tional trust. Resource uses such as dispersed recreation and wildlife provide little return on the trust, however these resources are impor- Continuedon page 12 picture of Etta Place and Ann Bassett are of , the same person based on facial features and identical identi-cal scars at the hairline. I "The chance of two women having hav-ing the same sort of defect is almost nil. The chances arc one in thousands thou-sands and will not even be estimated," estimat-ed," Dr. Thomas concludes. "The fact that the two women match in all their features and have this same defect removes all reasonable doubt that the two are the same person," he said. Burton's finding along with the analysis by Dr. Thomas are now published in a book, "Queen Ann Bassett Alias Etta Place" being distributed dis-tributed by Mrs. Burton. Wildlife Resources with assistance from the Nature Conservancy. The BLM is proposing the exchange ex-change with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation be completed in two phases of 3,000 to 5,000 acres each. The first phase would be completed in the spring of 1993 and the second phase in the fall of 1993., Paul Andrews, BLM Book Cliffs supervisor, said the letters were sent J I Continued on page 2 |