There is much in the Mother Media article that is misleading, but I will attempt to address the article.

My wife and I purchased our 17+ acres in 1987 on which we built our adobe home. My wife is retired from the Military Service and I from a self owned Electronics business. We have raised five children of our own, and over the past 9-years we have been raising four adopted children.

As I remember it, the actress referenced in the article, which Mr. Sprague states recently moved into the neighborhood, has lived in this neighborhood for as long as I have. Mr. Sprague purchased his 1-acre lot in 1996.

Mr. Sprague also states in the article that the actress offered me 3.5-million dollars for my property if I could get Mr. Sprague out. The actress referenced never offered me anything for my property. But I know for a fact that Mr. Sprague contacted the actress, asking  if she would buy his property.  It is my understanding that Mr. Sprague was asking a ridiculous price and the actress declined.

I have no idea what survey maps Mr. Sprague submitted to Mother Media, but I've made the Certified Survey Maps available to Dare To Dream Network to post on the DTDN web site. These are the same Certified Survey Maps that I also gave Mr. Sprague copies of.

I attempted to work out this dispute with Mr. Sprague on several occasions but Mr. Sprague was always unreasonable. On one particular day, while my surveyor and two police officers were there, Mr. Sprague said he would move his fence-posts back the ten feet to where the survey markers were if I would give him something notarized on paper that gave him access to the river over my property (proposed agreement). I agreed to this and told my surveyor to draw up something, which he did. After I received the paperwork I gave it to  Mr. Sprague to review and sign.

When I returned  to get the paper Mr. Sprague stated that he had not signed the document yet, because as he said, he now wanted me to also pay to have his lot surveyed and allow any of his family to have access across my property to the river. After Tony made more demands that were not part of our original agreement, I expressed to Tony that he could forget it and we would have to settle this in the courts. The truth is, the demand to pay for his survey is what really got to me!

Where Mr. Sprague tells Mother Media that I own the 50-foot wide road in front of his property, that statement is true. But where he states that I had dug-up the road in front of his driveway which made it an impassable sand-ditch is false! I disc the road to loosen the dirt before grading it smooth and flat. That is the way it's done! When I would come to Mr. Sprague's driveway I would pull the disc/grader blade up until I reached the other side of the drive before putting the disc/grader blade back down on the ground.

In regards to the Restraining Order, it was my wife and I that requested the original Restraining Order because of the actions of Mr. Sprague (and his nephew-21) towards our children (ages; 10 & 12).  My children (ages; 10 & 12) were being harassed by Tony's nephew. Concern for our animals and being told by Mr. Sprague that he had been all over our property at night while we were asleep, which unnerved my wife, all played a part in our requesting a restraining order.

When we were at court Mr. Sprague jumped up and yelled that he couldn't afford the Restraining Order or a lawyer so we suggested that the Restraining Order be mutual on all parties until we could get beyond this dispute.

About a month later, while I was grading the road on my tractor with my back to Mr. Sprague's driveway, Mr. Sprague drove up, got out of his car, and approached me from behind. When he got to the tractor  I heard Mr. Sprague say something, As I turned around I had to throw up my arm to protect myself because Mr. Sprague started coming at me swinging a metal club. He hit my wrist several times with the metal club, which resulted in my wrist being fractured and a cast was put on my arm and wrist.

The State Police investigated the Assault by interviewing the witnesses that saw the incident, along with Mr. Sprague and myself. The investigation by the officers resulted in Mr. Sprague being arrested for Assault. Mr. Sprague states in the article that I had pinned him up against his car with my tractor.  The fact is my tractor never got any closer than 20-feet from Mr. Sprague's car.

Mr. Sprague now has to go to court for violating the Restraining Order and to another court for the Assault charges by the State Police Department.

Mr. Sprague stated in the article that he went to the Espanola hospital for injuries caused by me, yet the hospital found nothing wrong with Mr. Sprague. Mr. Sprague told Mother Media that one of the witnesses, Jacob, was a four-time felon. That is a false and misleading statement, Jacob is a hard worker and has never been arrested as a felon. There is also another witness that saw everything that day and knows that Mr. Sprague was the aggressor.

Mr. Sprague says in the Mother Media article that Jacob was watching him while he was working on his water pump and that his water pump burnt out soon after. This is just Tony trying to blame someone else for his own shortcomings. First of all, no one could see Mr. Sprague working on his water pump unless they have x-ray vision, the water pump is in a pump house!  Nobody here is vandalizing Mr. Sprague's property. Why on earth would we?

The Mother Media/Sprague article says that a well-known actress and I are trying to take Mr. Sprague's property. This is a strange remark coming from Tony, since both the well-known actress and myself were contacted by Mr. Sprague to purchase his property and we both declined the offer.

I really do not understand why Mr. Sprague brought up a situation between Jacob's wife and two other women, since it  had nothing to do with me. NOTE: Since it's been brought up by Tony, this is what my understanding is! Jacob's wife was jumped by these two women that had been drinking and Jacob's wife defended herself. The police investigated the incident and told Jacob and his wife if there were any problems with the other two ladies to give them a call and they would come right out.

Every officer that has been called out to the property, whether for the incident where Tony assaulted me or the issue with Jacob's wife, were always very professional. The officers always treated Mr. Sprague with respect whenever I was present.

I do not understand Tony being devastated by all of this, especially when this situation has been caused by Mr. Sprague's own actions. Mr. Sprague should not be trying to ignore the issue, claiming land that does not belong to him!  According to Mr. Sprague's title and the Survey Maps, his property line is 290.40-feet on the north side, and 290.21 feet long on the south side! Tony is very aware of this. But about August of 2005 Mr. Sprague moved his fence out another 10-feet, now making Mr. Sprague's north property line in excess of 300-feet. The extra 10-feet that Tony extended his fence line is on the private road property, owned by me. It is my desire that Mr. Sprague move his fence line back to where it is legally suppose to be.

This has been very stressful to my wife, 4-children, and myself. The actions of Mr. Sprague have resulted in me having a heart attack in the late summer of 2005. Recently my wife had major surgery and has been trying to heal while having to deal with all the stress caused by Mr. Sprague's nonsense.

Mr. Sprague stated in the Mother Media article that he "had to send his daughter to school in Las Cruces and his son to the Indian school in Santa Fe for their own protection." It is my understanding, before this dispute began, his daughter, Tony Marie, was going to Las Cruces most all of last year on weekends with several other girls in order to build credits. Tony Marie was successful in building the credits needed and is now full time student. Regarding Tony's son! I was told that Tony's ex-wife (a full-blood Native American) decided to put her son in the Santa Fe Indian School for reasons that had nothing to do with what Tony is alleging.

Tony's remark that Jacob, his wife and I, have repeatedly tried to run over he and his family is a complete fabrication! No one has ever tried to do this, in fact, there were times when I or my wife would come out of our driveway  going up the private road towards the highway and we would have to drive off to the side of the road to get around the Sprague's because they would walk down the very middle of the road and would not move over. I call that harassment! Another fabrication is that I tried to have Tony's nephew Ray fraudulently arrested. I do not have a clue about this statement made by Mr. Sprague. Same goes with calling Tony's mother a "bitch". Strange remark since I didn't even know that Tony had a mother!

After the Clyde Vigil Certified Survey Map was finished by the licensed surveyor, I posted no-trespassing signs to keep people out that did not have business there. We had been having trouble with people coming into our driveway at all hours and wanted to do something to control the situation.

Mr. Lehrman's statement that I "now claim that I own the Rio Chama river" is ridiculous. Mr. Lehrman further states "A multi-ethnic and poor community like Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, can ill afford to have the rich and famous asserting control of it's few natural and recreation resources".

Mr. Lehrman, I have never said, nor would I ever say, I own the river. I do own the property bordering the river though. Furthermore, for your information Mr. Lehrman, your inference, that I am prejudice against  "multi-ethnic" is very unfair and misleading.  My wife and my four adopted children are full-blood Hispanic, so are many of my friends.

When Mr. Lehrman of Mother Media called me for an interview I said I would have no problem talking to him, but, because I now had an attorney involved in the dispute with Mr. Sprague, I suggested that he contact my attorney first.

In closing, I can only say that Mr. Sprague needs to be a responsible adult and grow up. Mr. Sprague has been trying to claim property that does not belong to him by misrepresenting the facts. It is obvious that this issue will need to be settled by the courts. It is important to me that I have this settled once and for all to protect my family from any further or future problems with Mr. Sprague.

Allen Crim
PO Box 1009
Abiquiu, New Mexico
87510

2007