July 28, 2015
Online Messenger #315
Western Watersheds Project isn’t known for backing down from a fight, and Friday’s filings in the Wyoming trespass lawsuit against us provide strong evidence of why WWP did nothing illegal and why, in fact, Karen Budd-Falen and her rancher clients are abusing the legal process with their frivolous allegations.
The Motion for Summary Judgment in the case, filed Friday by attorneys Justin Pidot, Justin Marceau, and Bob Southard, reiterates the facts that the ranchers’ case is built on speculation and revenge rather than on any hard evidence of actual trespass or harms. Mere conjecture about the routes WWP’s Wyoming Director Jonathan Ratner used are not enough to support the trespass allegations. The motives are purely retaliatory; the ranchers don’t like having public lands water quality impairment documented so they are trying to find a way to destroy WWP rather than clean up their operations.
The Motion points out the malicious nature of this lawsuit, meant to divert attention away from the evidence of livestock-related pollution in Wyoming’s waterways.
