Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Tim DeChristopher - Being Screwed by the Govt, While Ted Stevens takes his old ass into obscurity without paying for his crimes...
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A college student was charged with two federal felonies Wednesday for what he claims were acts of civil disobedience — making false bids to run up auction prices on oil and gas parcels on public land near Utah's national parks.
At the Dec. 19 lease sale, Tim DeChristopher grabbed a bidder's paddle, drove up prices and won 22,000 acres of land for $1.7 million — an amount he later said he didn't have the means or intention to pay.
DeChristopher "repeatedly said he intended to disrupt the lease bidding process," U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman said in announcing the charges. "Today's indictment is our answer to his decision."
The grand jury charged him with one count of interferring with a federal auction and one count of making false representations at an auction, Tolman said. The possible penalty could be no punishment or a combined sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $750,000.
DeChristopher, a 27-year-old University of Utah economics student, will be issued a summons to appear in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. No arraignment date has been set.
He isn't affiliated with any major environmental group but has said in public speeches that he infiltrated the auction to protest possible drilling on public lands near national parks.
One of his lawyers, Patrick Shea, said prosecutors hinted weeks ago that the case could be settled with a misdemeanor plea bargain instead of a felony punishable by prison time.
"We got hosed," Shea told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Shea said DeChristopher caused no harm at an auction that was already being contested in federal court by environmental groups, who won a court stay on the sale of some parcels. Weeks later, new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rescinded 77 of the leases, saying they were too close to national parks and never should have gone up for sale under the Bush administration.
One bidder, however, said DeChristopher cost him money.
"We are angry," said Daniel Gunnell, managing partner of Twilight Resources LLC of Orem, who said he lost parcels when Salazar rescinded them and paid extra for other parcels when DeChristopher ran up bids.
"Tim DeChristopher is a guy who walked in the auction without a penny and cost our company $600,000," Gunnell said.
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