Federal prosecutor defends track record in Nevada

Scott Sonner

Thursday, Nov. 18, 1999 | 10:13 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Federal prosecutors in Nevada support Forest Service law enforcement efforts and vigorously pursue and prosecute any threats against service employees, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Zlotnick said.

Government lawyers for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas declined to discuss any of the cases outlined in a Forest Service law enforcement in September critical of the Justice Department's prosecution of environmental laws on national forests in Nevada.

Zlotnick said there were at least two cases the office prosecuted in Elko County over the past five years - one involving the bombing of an outhouse in the Lamoille Canyon and another involving grand jury subpoenas served on two federal workers in the county.

Zlotnick said he had no estimate of the number of such cases Forest Service officers bring to the office annually. He said some of the cases that are not prosecuted criminally result in civil lawsuits and others end up in mediation.

"We support the Forest Service. We are committed to enforcing the law," Zlotnick said in an interview Tuesday.

"The cases we prosecute, we think that is the best thing to do. Things we go on and seek civil remedies for, we think that is the best way to handle them.

"Sometimes they are solved through litigation. Sometimes they are resolved through mediation. ... We do it the best way we know how," he said.

Zlotnick said he was not aware of a memo from Forest Service special agent Wayne Smith on the topic until the AP contacted him on Monday.

"If there are ever any threats to Forest Service employees, we would vigorously prosecute and pursue those," he said.

"Any time any federal employee - whether they be Forest Service or any land management employee or any employee in any area or the law in any manner - comes to us we take it very seriously and react strongly and prosecute the case," he said.

Zlotnick pointed to the prosecution of an outhouse bombing in Lamoille Canyon in Elko County in 1994, the office's defense of federal workers against subpoenas in an Elko County grand jury case three years ago and a current court order the office obtained to block reconstruction of the controversial South Canyon Road at the center of a fight over bull trout near Jarbidge, Nev.

"I am not going to talk about specific cases," Zlotnick said.

Did Agent Smith exagerate the situation?

"I can't speak for Mr. Smith," Zlotnick said.

"That's his opinion. I can just tell you how we conduct ourselves."

When a law enforcement agency brings charges to the U.S. Attorney, federal prosecutors decide whether to prosecute the case, review it further, pursue a civil lawsuit or decline further action, he said.

"When we decline a case, there are several levels of review," he said.

"Each case is looked at case by case. I don't have a number. There are not tremendous numbers."

Several of the cases cited in the memo involve the blocking or reopening of Forest Service roads in defiance of agency orders to the contrary.

In one case involving the Jefferson Canyon Road in Nye County, the Justice Department declined to prosecute an assault charge a special agent submitted in a case involving the Nye County Commission and Commissioner Richard Carver, the memo said.

More recent is an ongoing controversy in Elko County, where county commissioners want to rebuild a road in a national forest that the agency says would threaten the bull trout.

No criminal action has been taken against Elko County commissioners who contributed to "significant damage" to the Jarbidge River in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Smith wrote in the memo Sept. 3.

"Ed Turley, resident agent in charge, EPA, told the U.S. Attorney in my presence, the Jarbidge Canyon incident was the most egregious Clean Water Act violation he had observed in 20 years," he said.

The Justice Department since has threatened a civil suit against Elko County to recoup $400,000 in costs the Forest Service incurred attempting to stabilize the road after the county's unauthorized entry into the area in July 1998.