Letters to the editor: Where is the Justice

By John L. Anderson Salt Lake City

Dear Editor:
Several years ago three property owners in Big Cottonwood Canyon took a backhoe and cleaned off the debris that was on the road to their property from winter avalanches.
This is a RS 2477 road. That means it is a legal road and was in existence before 1977. This was an old timber and mine road from 1871 and is on the county maps.
They were falsely accused by the Forest Service of criminal trespass for crossing Forest Service land. This was a fraudulent claim in as much as the road was in existence and used for 40 years before the Forest Service was created.
They were hauled into federal court (like gangsters), found guilty of criminal trespass, fined $2,500 each and threatened with a $5,000 fine and a year in federal prison if they ever tried to drive up to their property again.
We now have a federal lawbreaker who intentionally broke some federal laws and refuses to pay for the oil and gas leases he fraudulently won at a federal land auction.
He defiantly and intentionally did this and he is now a hero across the nation. He has movie stars supporting him and even had his photo on the front page of the Sunday Trubune. Where is justice?
I will remember this great hero every time I have to pay $4 per gallon for gas.