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New
Mexico Land War Brewing - Actress Marsha Mason Denies
Allegations She's Causing Abiquiu Conflict
by
Leland Lehrman - 982.3609
There
is a parallel between Tony Sprague's suffering and
that of planet Earth. Greed and corruption eat away at
our ability to live peacefully until we have to take a
stand. As the Joni Mitchell song goes, "either
he's gonna have to stand and fight, or take off out of
here." His Abiquiu property is all he has. He's
worked a lifetime for it, he wants to give it to his
kids. Down from the mountains he came to see me,
having tried everyone else he knew in New Mexico to no
avail. I warned him of the dangers involved in
fighting systemic corruption in America, but he's not
backing down. Tony's court case comes up in January.
Read his story, and you'll understand. Let me know if
you can help. It's going to take ordinary folks doing
extraordinary things to secure justice for Tony
Sprague... and Mother Earth.
The
famous actress named Marsha Mason recently moved into
Tony's neighborhood. Tony alleges she wants Tony's
land. He also alleges that Mr. Allen Crim, Tony's
neighbor, told him that Ms. Mason had offerred Crim
3.5 million dollars for Crim's land if he could get
Tony to move out. Marsha Mason's lawyer Paula Cook and
Allen Crim both deny the allegations and have
threatened to sue Mother Media if we print them.
Recently, a Hispanic neighbor told Tony that Mr. Crim
had bragged of having two million dollars in the bank
with which to "get Tony out." Allen Crim
denied this allegation saying, "I"m not
going to give you anything to fight with," a
curious answer. The situation is now life-threatening,
Tony's dog has been shot and vandalism incidents
continue.
Unfortunately,
some law enforcement personnel appear to be obeying
the golden rule rather than the Golden Rule in this
case. Tony alleges that a Deputy Sheriff of Rio Arriba
County recently told him that he who has the gold
makes the rules.
Mother
Media met with Tony Sprague to examine the history of
the case. What appears to have happened is that county
survey boundaries have recently been manipulated such
that Allen Crim now maintains that he owns property
that under all previous surveys had clearly belonged
to Tony. Tony has the maps - and I have seen them -
that support his case.
Nevertheless,
claiming that he now "owns the road," Mr.
Crim has been using a tractor to plow up the road in
front of Tony's house, which has resulted in an
impassable sand ditch. Many people and Tony's salvage
yard customers get stuck in this sand ditch. Tony has
photographs, which I have seen, of Mr. Crim disking
the road. There is an affidavit from a witness who saw
Mr. Crim digging a ditch in front of Tony's driveway
prior to disking in order to increase the damage to
the driveway. And this despite a restraining order on
Mr. Crim requiring him to stay 50 yards away from
Tony's property except for coming and going along the
road! Mr. Crim denies this saying Tony's land is
"my property."
Here's
Tony's version of what happened during an event that
resulted in Tony's arrest, although it remains to be
determined in court who exactly should have been
arrested that day:
Allen
Crim, in a tractor, was waiting for Tony at the edge
of Tony's property to begin a now common harassment
episode. Tony told Crim that he wasn't supposed to be
within fifty yards of the property and that he [Crim]
was breaking the restraining order. At that point,
Tony got out of his car, turning his back, and,
hearing the tractor move forward he thought Crim was
going to go around him. Instead Crim pulled his
tractor up and blocked Sprague in between the car and
tractor. Tony then tried to get back in his car, and,
as Tony went to open the door, Mr. Crim ran the rear
tire of his tractor into Tony's side and pushed Tony
up against his car with the tractor. As he did so, Mr.
Crim threatened to have Tony thrown in jail for
trespassing and to take away his property, and every
time he made these threats, he would pop the clutch of
the tractor and push the rear tire deeper into Tony's
side. That's when Tony, in a clear cut self-defense
reaction, reached into the window of his car, grabbed
a metal pipe and began to swing it at Mr. Crim.
Mr.
Crim continued to move the tractor forward until Tony
was finally able to get free of the wheels. During the
entire episode, Mr. Crim kept saying "God damn
you, I'm going to take your land, I'm going to sue
you."
Allen
Crim denied this story, saying that Tony's story must
be false because "apparently the police came and
took him to jail." This of course does not make
Tony's allegations false.
Captain
Anderson, I have spoken with Tony Sprague at length
and he is clearly telling the truth as he sees it in a
now desperate attempt to get justice. He is willing to
take a lie detector test and I'm sure a legitimate
court case will bear him out. I advise you to take
this testimony under consideration as the situation
clearly warrants proactive police oversight and
management.
Tony's
sad and infuriating story continues:
After
the event, Tony attempted to call police, then went to
the Espanola police station which was closed. Getting
no response through either method, he went to the
emergency room to have his wounds treated. When State
Police Officer Lorenzo Aguirre arrived at the
emergency room, with a witness present, Officer
Aguirre refused to allow Tony to explain the event and
the necessity for self-defense in a situation where
Allen Crim was clearly the aggresor. Officer Aguirre
then also denied and downplayed the original report of
the doctor, which clearly stated that Tony had been
bruised, and finally had Tony transferred to another
State Police vehicle. Officer Aguirre also had the
gall to tell Tony in the emergency room that Tony was
ruining his day because Aguirre had had a date in
Santa Fe.
Further
egregious violations of proper police procedure
followed. Tony was never read his rights and did not
get a phone call for days. There are witnesses who
will testify that Tony was not read his rights, was
denied medical treatment for four or five hours or
longer, was denied food or drink for the entire day of
his arrest and was denied a shower for three days.
In
jail, Tony was further mistreated. When Tony told the
prison officers that he was claustrophobic, they then
put him into a smaller cell with a Mexican roommate in
for violent rape, and told Tony that this roommate was
crazy. This prisoner had apparently been jumped by the
rest of the prisoners and put in isolation for his own
protection. According to the inmates, this prisoner
had also been beaten by the police and had been
stabbed by one roommate, so he was paranoid. Because
of his claustrophobia, Tony had a panic attack, which
triggered the Mexican prisoner as well. The police
then moved the Mexican into the hallway, and gave Tony
his bunk and cell. This police procedure resulted in
Tony appearing to be the bad guy because the Mexican
had been beaten by police, had a broken arm and was
now on the floor in the hallway. Tony had been placed
in a dangerous situation wherein an angry and violent
inmate considered him an enemy.
One
of the guards knew Tony because Tony had known the
guard's father years ago. This guard helped Tony
during his panic attack when Tony could not catch his
breath. This guard then specified that Tony's cell did
not have to be locked, but that Tony had to be in the
cell.
Later,
a female security guard came and rescinded the order
to keep Tony's door open a crack, at which time Tony's
panic attack spiralled out of control. Tony became
suicidal, cut his wrist and curled on the floor.
Unbelievably, at this point, prison guards came into
his cell and kicked him.
Tony
did not get a phone call until after his arraignment,
three days after the arrest. Even then, it was only
because one of the inmates gave him a calling card
that Tony was able to arrange bail.
Allen
Crim alleges that Tony jumped him in the middle of
nowhere from behind, and that he has witnesses. But
there were no witnesses according to Tony who spoke to
all the people in line of sight of his house.
Apparently Mr. Crim's witness is a four-time felon
named Jacob about which more later. Two neighbors were
not there at the time, and the other neighbor said he
didn't see anything. According to Tony, his neighbors
are all scared of Mr. Crim who has apparently employed
this four-time felon named Jacob to threaten the
community with intent to force Tony off his land.
Tony's
water pumps have recently died mysteriously. Mr. Crim
specializes in electric motor repair, and two
consecutive pump motors have died from burnt windings
despite the fact that Tony checked the voltage,
continuity, breakers, and nothing was wrong. His first
pump had been running fine for ten years, it was a
heavy duty irrigation pump. He replaced that pump with
a new identical one horsepower pump, which worked fine
for a couple of weeks until it too burnt up
mysteriously.
Mr.
Crim's accomplice in this whole affair, Jacob, the
four-time felon in four states, was watching Tony
working on his pump one day. Tony then left for a day
and when he returned, the inside windings of the water
pump were burned up. Jacob has been known to wave guns
at people's heads. Allen Crim has also waved guns at
Tony. Mr. Crim even threatened to cut off Tony's head
with an axe in front of a witness named Gilly Ortiz.
Jacob's
wife also bit a neighbor lady named Holly so hard that
she ripped a muscle in Holly's arm; all this because
Holly was associating with Tony's family. Holly is a
neighbor that Tony has known for years, even before
Allen moved there. Jacob has waved guns at Holly's
family's heads threatening to shoot them.
Some
police behavior in this case appears to be
inappropriate. When Tony was transferred to a second
vehicle, in handcuffs, the State Police officer told
him that he better not "blink wrong, talk wrong
or move wrong otherwise he would beat the shit out of
him."
Tony
is devastated by these events. His land is all he has
and all he has to give to his children. He has no
prior police record, and maintains that he is an
upstanding citizen defending himself against what
appears to be a coordinated attempt to deny him his
property rights and legal due process. Sadly, Tony has
had to send his daughter to school in Las Cruces and
his son to the Indian School in Santa Fe for their own
protection.
Allegedly,
Mr. Crim, Jacob and Jacob's wife have repeatedly tried
to run over Tony and his family on the road. I have
spoken personally with a witness who attested to this
activity, Tony's nephew, Ray. Mr. Crim has also tried
to run Tony off the highway. Three days after Tony's
nephew Ray came to Tony's house, Mr. Crim fraudulently
tried to have Ray arrested, despite the fact that it
was Mr. Crim who had nearly run Ray over! Mother Media
did not get to ask Mr. Crim about this event, having
been referred to his attorney.
Tony
further alleges that Mr. Crim even harassed Tony's
attorney, telling him he was trespassing. Mr. Crim
also harassed Tony's elderly mother, calling her a
"fat bitch, a slut." Tony's mother has had
both a stroke and a heart attack. Mr. Crim's behavior
is beyond impolite, it appears to be criminal
harassment. He has threatened many other people in
Tony's yard, many are willing to testify.
In
an apparently provocative gesture, Mr. Crim put no
trespassing signs near Tony's property based on the
aforementioned apparently fraudulent resurveying
activity. Mr. Crim alleges that he owns the road, but
the matter is in Court. The road in question has been
a public use road for generations. By state law, a
road used for more than seven years by the public is a
public road. The road goes to an irrigation dam and
Tony has over 100 signatures which I have seen that
the road is public for fishing, swimming, and is a
public easement under the Rio Chama and Rio Grande
Wildlife River Preservation Act or similar.
The
most senior map of the region indicates that the river
easement was never deeded, and is a floodplain.
But
Tony alleges that Marsha Mason and Mr. Crim now claim
that they own the river (the Rio Chama). A
multi-ethnic and poor community like Rio Arriba
County, New Mexico can ill afford to have the rich and
famous asserting control of its few natural and
recreation resources.
Furthermore,
under the Water Act, any water "active or
benign" is to be publicly accessible. Fifteen
feet on either side of the river must also remain
public. Under this act, no running water source can be
blocked off from the public. Prior to Mr. Crim's
arrival, Tony's family used to fish in the river and
sit on its banks. 18 years ago, when he first arrived
in the area, Tony camped near the river, trapped
beaver, and fished even before he bought property. In
fact, he bought the property because it was accessible
to the river.
According
to Tony, the harassment began right after Mr. Crim
told Tony that Marsha Mason had offerred him 3.5
million dollars to get Tony off his land. Is there a
conspiracy to commit criminal harassment in this case?
There is no way this situation can be resolved without
taking Tony's allegations into account, although that
seems to be the intent of both law enforcement and his
tormentors. Since Tony Sprague is a good family man
and neighbor with no prior record, he deserves justice
from a state as honorable and fair as New Mexico.
Tony's
friend and neighbor, Cathy Berryhill sums it up
nicely: ""We have been twisting around
trying to figure out what to do, full of fear and
desperation because it seems that the rich always get
their way." All Tony and Cathy want is for
"someone [who] will at least look into it so that
Tony can be left alone-- which is all he really
wants."
Feel
free to contact me with questions,
R.
Leland Lehrman
Editor, Mother Media
505.982.3609
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