OCR Text |
Show Judge's decision Local sheepmen satisfied Seegmiller; Myron Higbee; Nelson Webster; Lillian W. Clark, for herself and as a representative of the estate of Douglas C. Clark, deceased; Lambeth Brothers Livestock; T. Randall Adams; and Dee Evans. The ranchers are seeking damages from the government for the death of hundreds of sheep during the summer of 1953, after two particularly large nuclear tests in Nevada. The loss of the sheep over all these years amounts to a large sum of money, said Bulloch, a large sum the ranchers would have had if the sheep hadn't died. Bulloch is quite positive about the chances of winning the case, but hopes it can be done soon. "We've been at it a long time," he said, "nearly 30 years." By BRUCE LEE Record Editor CEDAR CITY "I'm just entirely happy with the decision." Thus was the comment of sheepman McRae Bulloch concerning the decision last week of Federal Judge A. Sherman Christensen that a new trial should be conducted concerning the alleged killing of sheep in southern Utah by nuclear testing in the early 1950s. "It makes me feel better, like there might be a chance of reconciliation," added A.C. Seegmiller, another sheepman who was grazing sheep in the area in 1953. "Chances are a lot better than they were before the decision was honHoH Hnurn n In a 60-page decision on the hearing conducted early this spring, Judge Christensen commented on what he termed fraud by the United States government during the original 1956 trial. "All of the determinative evidence which should have been placed before the Court at the original trial was not made available to it by reason of the improper conduct of the defendant as herein found," he said. Among the improprieties the judge mentioned were supressing evidence, pressuring witnesses to change their testimonies, U.S. attorneys answering falsely and evasively to questions by the attorneys to the plaintiffs and reporting and investigating the facts inaccurately and unfairly. "I think the judge couldn't rule any other way," said Bulloch. "I think it was quite plain there was a cover-up." The matter will now go again to court. The first hearing is set for Aug. 24. The sheepmen involved are David Bulloch; McRae Bulloch; Kern Bulloch; Douglas Cory; A.C. |