!Urgent! FReep ALERT. Ranch Rescue member still jailed.

Casey has been moved again - this time from Solitary Confinement in Falfurrias to a Maximum Security Prison. We are trying to find out the exact name, but it is something like "Star Center".

He is in a cell with a mattress on the floor on the same block as death row. Please note: He is not on death row, but on the same block as death row.

Are you going to tell me, with a straight face, that Texans don't know where the state Death Row unit is located? It's the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, TX.

Casey gets a 5 min. phone call but other than that, he has NO contact with the outside world, has not been allowed visitors from day one, not even from Religious counsel nor is he permitted a Bible.

Only a 5 minute phone call, and he gets all this detail out...yeah, right.

Upon arrival at his new location of incarceration, Casey noted that at the end of his cell row, on the far wall, hangs a large Mexican Flag

Who writes this stuff, Baghdad Bob?

All of this information has come from me, Casey Nethercott's only outside contact. He gets almost one call a day, sometimes not every day though. He can talk longer than 5 minutes, as he has purchased a phone card from the commissary in the Star County Jail, but he talks fast and I have to write fast. Prior to that his only contact was with me when he was in Brooks County Jail-Falfurrias, TX. Casey has no reading material, even after 3 weeks. He has been given no p.defender until today. A man by the name of Ricardo Saleeze (Sleeze?) No Saleeze.

Tuesday the dirty Asst. D.A.- Rudy Gutierrez, took his case to a grand jury for an indictment and the grand jury LOWERED the bail from 200k to 45k because they changed his charges from 2 counts of Assault with a deadly weapon and 2 counts of illegal detention, TO the lessor 2 counts of interferring with civil liberties, and 1 count of Aggravated Assault. All bogus. The Asst. D.A. was livid!

Afte the grand jury indictment the Asst. DA-Rudy Gutierrez, was soooo mad that he went to Casey's cell and continued working on him to get some kind of confession. Casey told them where to go. They asked him on one particular visit from the Sheriff and his henchmen "So, Casey....did you smoke pot with the landowner?" Casey replied...."no, but I sure enjoyed the drugs you brought me last week." They didn't like that. He just gives it right back to them.

The Salvadorian witnesses/victims have never been seen, and it was the Sheriff's office that initiated the complaint, not the Salvadorians. Casey has not had any legal representation which is a violation of his rights to a speedy trial. When folks in the inner-circle, who are on the team trying to help, called for information we NEVER got a call back or got anyone on the phone. We, to this day, have never talked with the Sheriff, D.A., Asst. D.A., Inspector, or Texas Ranger. They just shun anyone and everyone. We can't get information on the van that is in the impound. We couldn't get the county appointed attorney (the first one) to go see Casey. He claims that Casey denied his services. He didn't.

They are administering his insulin, but only when it's convenient for them. Like at 10pm at night. They remove him from his cell handcuffed, lean him up against a wall, test his blood sugar level and then administer his shot. Sometimes it's not enough, sometimes it's too much. This causes him highs and lows.

They have really been working on his head though. They say things like: "Ranch Rescue isn't doing much for you are they?" (Meanwhile we're out here, day and night, trying to find someone to help that doesn't cost $20k.) OR: "If you just come clean you can walk out of here today." They want him to perjure himself. We have pictures from a French Reporter who has also had a notarized statement made available that noone was injured on Ranch Rescue's watch. The two Salvadorians were two out of 100 that run across the landowners property that night.

Currently Casey has no more of the $200+ he had with him and doesn't have a phone card either. I haven't talked with him since Tuesday night. That was when they had the grand jury indictment and lowered his bail and charges.

Today, the arraigned him again on these new charges and his new Public Defender (this Saleeze) guy managed to get his charges BACK TO WHERE THEY WERE ORIGINALLY! SAME WITH HIS BAIL. $200k and 4 counts.

This is a nightmare folks. I know Jack Foote and he does not lie. I trust Jack and have never known him to lie. In fact, every member that night continues to stand by the fact that they only treated the Salvadorians with a non-emotional, matter-of-fact way. They gave them some water, and offered them some candy bars. They let the woman have a blanket until they were released. Why would you beat, or hurt, these people and then let them go? And the landowner would never have insisted on letting them go, as he did, if they had been roughed up! The Border Patrol had been called at least twice after they apprehended the two. Why would you call border patrol after beating these two? They would obviously figure out you had hurt them when they came to pick them up.

It's all ridiculous and makes no sense. They have such a reputation down there for being in the pocket of the drug cartels. I understand that Ramos (the original P.D. that never went to see Casey) was arrested on cocaine trafficking charges. Can't confirm that right now though.

So.....there will be more news tomorrow for those that are interested. We actually have an attorney now.

Ranch Rescue Volunteer Denies Assault

By John MacCormack San Antonio Express-News

A Ranch Rescue volunteer pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of assaulting and unlawfully restraining an undocumented immigrant three weeks ago during a nighttime patrol of a ranch near Hebbronville. "He denies beating the Salvadoran. We're saying he didn't do it," said Ricardo Soliz, a court-appointed lawyer for Casey Nethercott, who remains in jail on $200,000 bond.

Nethercott and a second volunteer, Henry Conner, were arrested March 21 after they allegedly used a Rottweiler to track down two Salvadorans, then detained them and beat one of them. Conner is free on bond.

Ranch Rescue is an Abilene-based border watch group that provides armed patrols to ranchers who believe authorities cannot protect them from undocumented immigrant trespassers.

Nethercott and Conner were among the volunteers who came to South Texas last month as part of "Operation Falcon." They came at the invitation of rancher Joe Sutton, who says hundreds of undocumented immigrants trespass on his 5,000 acres each week.

Nethercott, 35, of La Mirada, Calif., has become a cause celebré for Ranch Rescue since his arrest.

"Nethercott remains in Solitary Confinement and has no TV, no radio, no newspapers, no magazines, no books, not even a Bible," reads the Ranch Rescue Web site.

"He has been denied all visitors, including religious counselors. He is being psychologically tortured by this isolation! This is the behavior of rogue states like Iraq and North Korea, not the United States of America," reads the account.

The group's Web site asks for donations for his defense and vows a show of force by Ranch Rescue on April 26 in Hebbronville. The first "Operation Falcon" was called off after the arrests.

"We're going back to Jim Hogg County to finish what we started, and we're going back in strength," said Jack Foote, Ranch Rescue's founder.

"We've gotten a lot of response. There will be at least 200 of us, likely more. And we'll all arrive at the same time, in a convoy," he said.

Foote said he was with Nethercott and other volunteers when the Salvadorans were found hiding in the grass, and he claims they were not mistreated.

A French journalist who also was present told reporters the two Salvadorans were well treated after being found. His affidavit about the event is on the Ranch Rescue Web site.

"We have eyewitnesses that can verify what happened. We have photographic evidence. Casey Nethercott did not strike anyone. He was not even within reach of them," Foote said.

Also, said Foote, there is no record of anyone being seriously injured.

"If (the Salvadoran) had a lump on the back of his head egregious enough for these charges, don't you think they would have had a physician look at the man? Either he had no injuries or the injury didn't warrant medical attention," he said.

Soliz said Nethercott has no complaints about the conditions in the Starr County Jail, where he is being held, and wishes to distance himself completely from Ranch Rescue.

"I have talked to him, and he says he's getting medical care, and has no complaints about his treatment, but that this group is sending out stuff on the Internet and making his life miserable," Soliz said.

"He has told me that he disavows any connection with Ranch Rescue, that these people are not giving him any support, they have not given him any money," he said.

Foote, however, said several thousands of dollars has been raised to hire a lawyer to defend Nethercott. Foote was surprised to hear that Nethercott is apparently finished with his group.

Nethercott's legal problems might only be starting. According to prosecutors, he has a felony criminal record in California for similar offenses and was prohibited by federal law from carrying weapons.

"He has denied having a weapon, but I think we've got substantial evidence he did have a weapon, so he may also be facing some federal charges. The ATF is taking an interest," said Assistant District Attorney Rudy Gutierrez.

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