John Godfrey Appeal tomrrow in Sacramento

[minerrick]

If any of you local miners are avail to go to the Fed District Court Building in Sacramento, tomorrow, John Godfrey - a miner who was charged with polluting a stream using a (non-motorized) highbanking operation with a sluice box and other assorted charges (go to www.westernminingalliance.com home page and download the Amicus Brief to see what it is exactly about) is having an appeals hearing. I had the opportunity to see his operation when it was running and he was a VERY conscientious miner in that (in my opinion) he went far and above what was needed to have a environmentally positive operation and yet he still was ticketed. The New 49's paid to have James Buchal write up the Amicus for him.

His hearing is at the Federal Building on Tues June 6 at 1:30 PM in courtroom 6. If you have the time to stop by, I am sure he would like to have your support.

 

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[Goldwasher]

having problems with the link Rick.
What was his non-motorized hi-banking op?

 

[fowledup]

http://westernminingalliance.org/hot-topics/small-scale-river-mining-info/john-godfrey-amicus-brief/
Another great piece of legal lit. for the claim box- yea!
Some folks collect stamps or baseball cards, I think I'll collect Buchal Amicus Briefs. If he were a singer I'd say "the mans got pipes"!

 

[minerrick]

http://westernminingalliance.org/hot-topics/small-scale-river-mining-info/john-godfrey-amicus-brief/
Another great piece of legal lit. for the claim box- yea!
Some folks collect stamps or baseball cards, I think I'll collect Buchal Amicus Briefs. If he were a singer I'd say "the mans got pipes"!

Fowled, I think you nailed it. Buchal is brilliant.

 

[minerrick]

having problems with the link Rick.
What was his non-motorized hi-banking op?

Yeah, Gold Washer, I saw his operation and it was very clean and tidy. The amount of work he went to in order to keep it that way was above and beyond. He had a setting pond on the side of the creek, and after every couple of hours of sluicing, he'd turn everything off, get the wheelbarrow out and shovel the tailings into the wheelbarrow and wheel them up on the hillside to dump them out of the active waterway. He was on a popular enviro path, so he was very careful to have a immaculate operation. They railroaded him.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Little less than 30 minutes away, I hope it goes good for him!

 

[fowledup]

Any news? Should have been a slam dunk in his favor

 

[Hoser John]

No such thing anymore as legal is no longer relevant-John

 

[NeoTokyo]

He lost?

I can not find anything on google about this, I dug through a lot of pages too and found the beginning of this, but no one has posted any updates yet.
I don't see how he can lose when sluicing was exempt and he ran a clean ship.

 

[fowledup]

Regardless of the sluicing being exempt, the district forest ranger did not follow policy. If he deemed the mining op illiegal he is obligated to first send a notice of non compliance, not criminal action. I still haven't heard but there was nothing right about what the forest service did, should be or shoulda been a slam dunk

 

[Hefty1]

He lost?

I can not find anything on google about this, I dug through a lot of pages too and found the beginning of this, but no one has posted any updates yet.
I don't see how he can lose when sluicing was exempt and he ran a clean ship.

How do you know he lost?

 

[winners58]

anybody show up, seems like it would be on going.
its an appeal from district court so you would need a log on to see whats happening.
saw the original judgment, 3 years court probation (community service & don't get into any trouble) and 7000 restitution,
never take a federal public defender.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Hefty, I think I read into what John said incorrectly.

Winner that is a hell of a punishment for doing everything by the books, what the heck is wrong with our state?!
So he is fighting it and we don't know what is going on yet?

 

[Hoser John]

This is exactly what I mean-complete,total insanity as color of law,rule or regulation is no longer relevant to any mining issues,just hate,ban,fine and close. Like the State office of Conservation tells you when you try to obtain the information of the ages from the now defunct Division of Mines and Minerals. We closed that down because NOBODY mines anymore in California ...sic sic sic as the green insanity continues within the bureaucracy and court systems-John

 

[beekbuster]

this is very depressing. were being strong armed by the gov't. who here has the money to pay for a lawyer to defend themselves in a situation like this. the laws mean nothing, their strategy is to harass us and cost us money until we all are too afraid or too broke to pursue our interests. its a g.d. mafia!

 

[kayakpat]

So what is the result?

 

[Goldwasher]

I tried to look it up and can't find info...can't find a update or paperwork on it...funny there was a man named John Godfrey tried for witchcraft in 1658...1665....and 1669!

Sounds related to me can you say "Witch hunt"

Witch-hunt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Clay Diggins]

His conviction was upheld on counts 3 & 4 and count 5 was rejected and returned to the trial court. The original trial defense was terribly handled - there is little that can be done once a bad lawyer has thoroughly mucked up the defense. NEVER take the public defender. They work for the court.

I'm more than a little Pissed OFF that these so called miners organizations continue to push the drama of miners encounters with law enforcement, ask for donations to help and then act as if the actual court proceedings and their results are secret. Jeez guys at least share the court and case numbers so we can look this stuff up ourselves if you don't have the huevos to post the results of your "efforts". (Godfrey had no help for his trial).

This stuff is public information! If those organizations really want to help miners they should follow up with these cases, present the entire case from the record, and allow miners to learn from these experiences. If we keep doing the same thing over and over again we will continue get the same results.

HERE is the publicly available decision from the appeals court, it's a small PDF file:

 

[Goldwasher]

I am always wary of working in the N.F. at least count 5 was reversed lends credence to the dredging situation.

 

[fowledup]

WOW! Didn't expect that outcome. Busting ROCKS is destruction of a natural feature? So what the hell is a miner with a lode claim supposed to do? One step up, four steps back. Looks to me llke the prosecutors and the state were ready and waiting while his defense never showed, sad, something else to use to argue against us. AAGGGHHHH This makes me physically fricken ill.

Where was the original trial? Nevada City?