Article excerpts:

“Charles and Heather Maude, indicted separately with felony criminal charges of theft of federal property will attend their first court hearing Nov. 19, 2024, in federal court in Rapid City, S.D.

Criminal proceedings are public unless otherwise ordered by the court.

The official wording on the grand jury indictment against the Caputa, S.D., farm and ranch couple, said that the couple both “did knowingly steal, purloin and convert to their own use, National Grasslands managed by the United States Department of Agriculture… approximately 25 acres of National Grasslands for cultivation and approximately 25 acres of National Grasslands for grazing cattle, having a value in excess of $1,000, and did aid and abet each other, all in violation of U.S.C. §§ 641 and 2.”

Cheyenne, Wyo., attorney and former Department of the Interior Deputy Solicitor for Parks and Wildlife Karen Budd-Falen said the Maude situation could have easily been handled as a civil matter rather than in criminal court.

“They could have handled this under the Color of Title Act or the Small Tracts Act,” Budd-Falen said.”

Link to article: HERE