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Posted on 09/19/2001 7:40:10 PM PDT by nunya bidness

I caught up with Barbara Martin, one of the organizers at the Klamath headgates and inquired about the current state of the standoff. She is currently under a federal temporary restraining order and show cause injunction. While she did appear before Judge Aiken, who issued the original order, which turned off the water in the first place, on September 4th she was granted a continuance. Since the appearance she has retained counsel and vows to fight to the end.

Martin mentioned several troubling aspects of the case including information from a previous article at Sierra Times. Scott G. Pearson, special agent for the United States Department of the Interior, US Fish and Wildlife Service, made the following sworn statements in an affidavit to support the TRO. The colored font is my response.

On August 28, 2001, at approximately 7pm I observed my Confidential Informant (CI) in conversation with a group of people standing on the north side of the BOR A Canal Headgate (HG), located within the city limits of Klamath Falls, Oregon.

At approximately 8:15pm, on August 28, 2001, the CI met with me, Ranger Mike Meyer, and US Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Pete Nylander. This meeting took place at the HG on BOR property. The CI told me the Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger had attempted to dissuade the crowd from crossing the fence onto BOR property. The CI said Sheriff Evinger was told there would be a gathering at 4pm on August 29, 2001 and at 5pm certain individuals would cross the gate in an action they called "The Transfer of Ownership."

I was at that meeting. So let’s get the names out. Ed Caleb, Klamath Falls DA, Sheriff Evinger, Barron Knoll, Joe Bair and eventually Barbara Martin showed up with Sheriff Richard Mack. I reported what was said at the meeting in my report that night. So if Scott Pearson claims to have a CI it’s not hard to guess whom that person was. Hint it wasn’t any of the organizers.

I asked the CI the names of the individuals who told Sheriff Evinger they would cross the gate. The CI told me Joe Bair, Barron Knoll, and Barbara Martin stated they would cross the gate.

That’s a lie. No one at that meeting said anything about going over the next day. The purpose of the meeting was to prove to the irrigators that they owned their land and to let them decide what they wanted to do about it. None of the three named said anything about crossing the gate.

The CI said Barbara Martin provided Sheriff Evinger with documents Martin alleges shows the transfer of the HG property to local interests. The CI said Barbara Martin was demanding that Sheriff Evinger evict federal agents from the HG property.

This is true. And in the interest of full disclosure Sheriff Evinger said that he could have asked the Feds to leave at any time in the standoff but he didn’t because he didn’t have the staff to deal with the problem. So the sheriff called the Feds, then asked them to leave in writing twice and then admitted that he could have kicked them out anytime.

The CI further related that Barron Knoll had stated that "if this continues on much longer that he and his brother would arm themselves."

Another lie. Barron said no such thing. And while we’re on the subject of he said she said, the Herald and News quoted Barron in one of their articles that he made comments about coming back with guns and other provocative statements. The only problem is the reporter never talked to Barron to get the statements.

Later during the evening of August 28, 2001 the CI provided me a copy of the documents which he said Sheriff Evinger received from Barbara Martin. Included in the documents provided by the CI is a one-page complaint dated August 23, 2001 from Klamath Project Irrigators and/or Walt Moden. The complaint directs that Sheriff Evinger order off the premises and remove if necessary all federal officers from the A Canal property and the headgates.

Truth be told the only person I saw go over to the federal side was the sheriff.

On August 29, 2001 I reviewed an article from the Sierra Times website. This article reports the District Attorney Ed Caleb "supported Evinger in his position that the city commissioners would have a better chance to affect a long term solution if no one entered the gates but admitted that if people decided to cross the line that in all likelihood they would be allowed to occupy the area provided they didn’t try to make an unlawful release of water."

The position Mr. Pearson mentions was in fact the position outlined by Ranger Felicia Probert in a conversation I had with her on August 28, 2001.

At approximately 6pm on August 29, 2001 an estimated 150 protestors entered the BOR property by climbing over the locked gate in the north fence. The protestors were accompanied by Joe Bair, Barron Knoll and Barbara Martin. The protest group increased to approximately 300 persons at its peak and the crowd advanced to the north edge of the headgate structure.

During the protesters presence upon BOR property Barron Knoll presented to BLM Ranger Mike Meyer with paperwork from the Coalition for Local Sovereignty. Barbara Martin circulated through the crowd calling for participants to affect a "citizen’s arrest" of the federal officers and repeatedly attempted to incite the crowd to physically occupy the headgate structure.

See my report from the other side of the fence. Barbara may have said what they claim but she wasn’t the only one. And for the record the organizers weren’t the first to go over it was the irrigators who made the decision to act.

Based upon the information provided me by the CI, my personal observations, my review of documents provided by the CI and review of the Sierra Times article and the events of the evening of August 29, 2001, I believe Joe Bair, Barron Knoll, and Barbara Martin will attempt to again enter BOR lands without authorization and/or further attempt to incite the crowd to take actions which would endanger both the protesters and federal law enforcement officers.

I submit this affidavit under penalty of perjury.

Signed Scott G. Pearson, SA DOI/USFWS, August 31, 2001


Sheriff Mack has indicated that he is willing to testify on the statement referred to in this affidavit and so will I. I can be reached at the Sierra Times. I think the Feds know the address. More to come.

Sean Finnegan

Sierra Times

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