Douglas militia leader arrested
Casey James Nethercott
Convicted felon and militia organizer Casey James Nethercott was arrested by FBI agents Wednesday night in Douglas in connection with a tense confrontation late last month with Border Patrol agents at his nearby ranch.
Kalen Riddle, 22, of Aberdeen, Wash., a member of Nethercott's Arizona Guard, was shot and seriously injured during the arrest, which took place in a Safeway shopping center on Douglas' west side.
Hospital officials in Tucson said Riddle was in guarded condition, but his mother, Janice Binks-Riddle, said her son had undergone surgery to remove his spleen and had been placed in a drug-induced coma, with his prognosis still uncertain.
Nethercott, 37, was initially booked into the Cochise County Jail but was transferred to federal custody in Tucson on Thursday, said Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Department. He is charged with assaulting a federal officer during an incident that occurred Aug. 31.
FBI officials said actions taken by Riddle and Nethercott caused an agent to draw his weapon and shoot Riddle. The name of the agent is being withheld as a matter of policy, said agent Susan Herskovits, an FBI spokeswoman.
She said search warrants were served at Nethercott's Warrior Ranch, about three miles west of Douglas, on Thursday afternoon.
Nethercott's Arizona Guard, which mixes anti-immigrant and private-property-rights rhetoric in its Internet appeal for members, is an offshoot of Ranch Rescue, splitting off after a rift developed between Nethercott and Ranch Rescue organizer Jack Foote.
Foote moved Ranch Rescue from Texas to Arizona early in 2003 after Nethercott, formerly of California, bought the Douglas-area ranch that now serves as headquarters for his Arizona Guard.
Ranch Rescue now lists a Sierra Vista address. Foote did not reply to telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment on Nethercott's arrest and his split with Ranch Rescue.
A complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson states that on Aug. 31, three Border Patrol agents turned on their lights and sirens while trying to stop Nethercott near his home, but he ignored them and continued onto his property, where agents observed Riddle carrying a firearm and several armed men taking defensive positions within the ranch compound.
The complaint says Riddle \"moved his weapon towards the front, still pointed at the ground,\" when the agents stopped outside Nethercott's ranch.
Nethercott shouted verbal commands and issued orders by radio as he threatened the Border Patrol agents, according to the complaint.
After initially listening to Nethercott, Riddle said he was getting down on the ground as ordered by the agents.
Nethercott called Cochise County sheriff's deputies to the scene, saying Border Patrol agents had members of his organization on the ground and were pointing weapons at them.
Nethercott warned that if the deputies did not arrive quickly, there would be shooting between the group and Border Patrol agents.
By the time the deputies arrived, other Border Patrol agents had also arrived. The deputies found at least seven Border Patrol vehicles, with at least as many agents shielded behind their vehicles with their handguns drawn, as well as some with AR-15 rifles, all pointing toward the Arizona Guard compound.
Nethercott told deputies that at no time did agents activate their emergency lights in an attempt to stop him and that they aimed weapons at Riddle, who only had a rifle slung over his shoulder.
Nethercott, a twice-convicted felon, told deputies that he was angered because Border Patrol agents had ordered Nethercott to lie on the ground \"like a criminal.\"
Deputies were able to defuse the situation when Border Patrol agents retreated from the property, about a half-mile east of the Douglas Border Patrol Station.
The incident was reported to the FBI, which got an arrest warrant for Nethercott on Sept. 8 from U.S. Magistrate Judge Glenda E. Edmonds in Tucson.
Bill Dore, a friend and honorary member of the Arizona Guard, said Nethercott called him at about 1 a.m. Thursday and told him about the arrest and shooting, and asked him to watch after his ranch and dog.
Nethercott was convicted on federal weapons charges earlier this year and was free on bond pending a decision by Texas authorities on whether he would be retried on assault charges stemming from a 2003 incident in which he was accused of beating two illegal immigrants detained in a Ranch Rescue operation in Hogg County, Texas.
Riddle's mother said her son, who stands 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 380 pounds, is a \"gentle giant\" of Norwegian descent. But like many young people, he had grown up \"with so much anger\" and he \"fell in with these hate groups,\" she said.
The Arizona Guard's Web site includes a mission statement that reads: \"We are an Organized Militia Dedicated to the Defense of American Patriotism and to help local ranchers and citizens defend property from illegal alien activity and drug running operations.\"
The case illustrates the threat to migrants, law enforcement officials and others posed by Nethercott's group and other self-proclaimed militias and extreme anti-immigration groups, said Jennifer Allen, director of the Tucson-based Border Action Network.
The group has issued repeated warnings about what it calls the growing danger of vigilantism.
Allen said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard shares responsibility for the shooting incident because he and other law enforcement officials in Arizona have allowed these groups to operate with seeming impunity.
\"While some of the individual vigilantes may deny any overt connections to white supremacy, the movement they are creating is part and parcel of the white supremacist movement,\" she said. \"It's not about private property or immigration; that's a lie. It's about racism. These are hate groups, and these are hate crimes.\"
Goddard said his office has worked diligently to address what is primarily an issue for the federal government and for local jurisdictions.
He said he has met with federal officials from the United States and Mexico, and has appealed to his counterpart in Sonora and other border states, church groups and advocacy groups, asking them to come forward with specific evidence of a crime committed against a migrant by a militia member.
To date, no victim has come forth, he said.
\"We need a witness to make a case,\" he said. \"It's an issue we all have to struggle with, but it doesn't have a simplistic answer.\"