BearHunter
03-26-2004, 10:54 AM
By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer
Authorities are investigating an alleged death threat against a state Game, Fish & Parks Department conservation officer from Harding County.
Emmett Keyser, assistant Wildlife Division director for GF&P in Pierre, said officer Brian Meiers was threatened recently during a meeting between GF&P officials and western South Dakota landowners in Belle Fourche.
"Brian was apparently coming out of a bathroom at the forum, and some landowner he didn't know made some kind of side comment about 'don't come on my place, or you're going to get shot,'" Keyser said.
Meiers said Wednesday that the man who confronted him wasn't from Harding County. Meiers gave a report on the incident to authorities but has not changed his work practices because of it.
"I don't feel threatened up here," he said. "I'm going to keep doing my job."
Meiers was the focus of controversy last fall when Buffalo-area rancher David Niemi accused him of trespassing. Niemi signed a trespassing complaint against the officer. The complaint was passed through several levels of law enforcement to eventually reach the office of state Attorney General Larry Long.
Long said recently that the investigation was delayed because of the state Legislature. But a state investigation will soon determine if Meiers had trespassed under the law, Long said.
Mike Kintigh, regional supervisor for GF&P in Rapid City, said he welcomes the investigation on the trespass issue.
"We feel like we were in the right, or within our duties," Kintigh said. "But we want to know for sure. Right now, it's kind of up in the air."
The state agent conducting that investigation will also check out the reported threat against Meiers, a spokesman for Long said.
"I think that is going to fall under the same investigation," Sara Rabern said Wednesday. "Any type of death threat obviously would be a part of that."
Threatening a law enforcement officer can in itself be a crime. Rabern said it isn't clear yet whether the Meiers incident would fall into that category.
Keyser said conservation officers occasionally receive threats of physical violence or even death. Most often, they are simply bursts of emotion, but each must be considered seriously, he said.
"It's certainly not the first time one of our guys has been threatened. It can be pretty unnerving. It's not a good situation," Keyser said.
Gov. Mike Rounds said Wednesday that he didn't have details of the alleged threat. But any threat against a law officer of any kind would be a serious criminal act, he said.
"That is a violation of state law, and no law-enforcement officer should have to put up with it," Rounds said. "We most certainly would prosecute something like that to the fullest extent of the law."
Harding County has for months been the center of emotional disputes between landowners and GF&P. Along with the trespass issue, Buffalo-area rancher and pilot Jerry Janvrin was charged with violating aerial hunting laws, based on a complaint from another rancher and pilot, Lex Burghduff.
Janvrin flies for a predator-control district in northwest South Dakota, and Burghduff has flown on a predator-control contract with GF&P.
Their dispute and the federal trial over Janvrin's charges caused a divide in the county. That and the dispute between Niemi and Meiers over the trespass issue led to a protest against GF&P policies that closed more than 500,000 acres of private land to hunting last year.
It also prompted a bill in the state Legislature to limit the authority of conservation officers to enter private land without permission to check hunting licenses and enforce other regulations. The House passed the bill, but it failed in the Senate.
Anger at GF&P policies lingers in Harding County and elsewhere, and some ranchers continue to support a hunting lockout this year that could be larger than the one in 2003.
Harding County made related news again recently when Burghduff, a GF&P contract pilot, was charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping after an incident involving his wife. GF&P stopped using Burghduff for predator-control flights because of the charges.
Burghduff is free on $50,000 bond, with court stipulations that he not drink alcohol, not have contact with his wife or their children and not possess firearms or other weapons.
Another condition of bond is that Burghduff not have any contact with members of the Clarkson family, except for Harding County Sheriff William Clarkson.
Burghduff has had a rocky relationship with the Clarksons, a well-known ranching family in Harding County that includes Mert Clarkson, a member of the state GF&P Commission.
According to witness statements in the court complaint in the assault and kidnapping case, Burghduff allegedly made threats against the Clarksons.
Burghduff was scheduled to be arraigned in court today in Belle Fourche.
Authorities are investigating an alleged death threat against a state Game, Fish & Parks Department conservation officer from Harding County.
Emmett Keyser, assistant Wildlife Division director for GF&P in Pierre, said officer Brian Meiers was threatened recently during a meeting between GF&P officials and western South Dakota landowners in Belle Fourche.
"Brian was apparently coming out of a bathroom at the forum, and some landowner he didn't know made some kind of side comment about 'don't come on my place, or you're going to get shot,'" Keyser said.
Meiers said Wednesday that the man who confronted him wasn't from Harding County. Meiers gave a report on the incident to authorities but has not changed his work practices because of it.
"I don't feel threatened up here," he said. "I'm going to keep doing my job."
Meiers was the focus of controversy last fall when Buffalo-area rancher David Niemi accused him of trespassing. Niemi signed a trespassing complaint against the officer. The complaint was passed through several levels of law enforcement to eventually reach the office of state Attorney General Larry Long.
Long said recently that the investigation was delayed because of the state Legislature. But a state investigation will soon determine if Meiers had trespassed under the law, Long said.
Mike Kintigh, regional supervisor for GF&P in Rapid City, said he welcomes the investigation on the trespass issue.
"We feel like we were in the right, or within our duties," Kintigh said. "But we want to know for sure. Right now, it's kind of up in the air."
The state agent conducting that investigation will also check out the reported threat against Meiers, a spokesman for Long said.
"I think that is going to fall under the same investigation," Sara Rabern said Wednesday. "Any type of death threat obviously would be a part of that."
Threatening a law enforcement officer can in itself be a crime. Rabern said it isn't clear yet whether the Meiers incident would fall into that category.
Keyser said conservation officers occasionally receive threats of physical violence or even death. Most often, they are simply bursts of emotion, but each must be considered seriously, he said.
"It's certainly not the first time one of our guys has been threatened. It can be pretty unnerving. It's not a good situation," Keyser said.
Gov. Mike Rounds said Wednesday that he didn't have details of the alleged threat. But any threat against a law officer of any kind would be a serious criminal act, he said.
"That is a violation of state law, and no law-enforcement officer should have to put up with it," Rounds said. "We most certainly would prosecute something like that to the fullest extent of the law."
Harding County has for months been the center of emotional disputes between landowners and GF&P. Along with the trespass issue, Buffalo-area rancher and pilot Jerry Janvrin was charged with violating aerial hunting laws, based on a complaint from another rancher and pilot, Lex Burghduff.
Janvrin flies for a predator-control district in northwest South Dakota, and Burghduff has flown on a predator-control contract with GF&P.
Their dispute and the federal trial over Janvrin's charges caused a divide in the county. That and the dispute between Niemi and Meiers over the trespass issue led to a protest against GF&P policies that closed more than 500,000 acres of private land to hunting last year.
It also prompted a bill in the state Legislature to limit the authority of conservation officers to enter private land without permission to check hunting licenses and enforce other regulations. The House passed the bill, but it failed in the Senate.
Anger at GF&P policies lingers in Harding County and elsewhere, and some ranchers continue to support a hunting lockout this year that could be larger than the one in 2003.
Harding County made related news again recently when Burghduff, a GF&P contract pilot, was charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping after an incident involving his wife. GF&P stopped using Burghduff for predator-control flights because of the charges.
Burghduff is free on $50,000 bond, with court stipulations that he not drink alcohol, not have contact with his wife or their children and not possess firearms or other weapons.
Another condition of bond is that Burghduff not have any contact with members of the Clarkson family, except for Harding County Sheriff William Clarkson.
Burghduff has had a rocky relationship with the Clarksons, a well-known ranching family in Harding County that includes Mert Clarkson, a member of the state GF&P Commission.
According to witness statements in the court complaint in the assault and kidnapping case, Burghduff allegedly made threats against the Clarksons.
Burghduff was scheduled to be arraigned in court today in Belle Fourche.