[derf]

posted on the 'fishin militia ' board by rob ...

Topic: Friday's Court Hearing From My Perpesctive
Posted: Today at 10:35am
What a giant bowl of suck yesterday was.The court hearing was very depressing and some sad realizations were apparent.

There was almost a full courtroom of people.The ORVs had roughly 75 proponents,while the other side had maybe 12 people.

The judge entered the courtroom and went straight to kicken our A$$.

Judge Boyle's 1st comments were that there was a motion to continue in front of him and before he heard anything from any side that they needed to know that he had found merit for the Injunction and was willing to grant the Injunction right then and there.

Derb Cater from the SELC and who is responsible for the lawsuit from the DOW and the Audubon stood up and acknowledged that the SELC and the NPS had been working on Settlement.Derb was basically done after that for the remaining of the proceeding.

The Judge then went to the NPS lawyer next and what a circus that was.This woman is nothing less than useless and has no true knoledge of this case or of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area.You could have put "Helen Keller" in front of the judge while she was on 4 hits of LSD and she could have done a better job.

The Nps lawyer told the jusge that the NPS and the otherside had come to some agreements and that she needed a few days to get the documents in front of the Dept of Justice and the Dept of the Interior for their final approval.

The judge proceeded to ask the NPS lawyer the following questions,as to wether or not these topics had been included in their settlement agreements

Night time driving

Carrying Capacity ( the amount of vehicles in any given area)

Permits ( schooling for the ORV drivers)

Adequate NPS enforcement Rangers to enforce the laws


differetn plans for different areas of the beach

Different plans for locals versus visitors

Are the areas near the water that are currently open near nesting areas as access corridors are actually the best place for "Shore Birds" to be.

Are big trucks ( Hummers,Duellies) more of an impact to the beach, as opposed to say a smaller ORV like a jeep wrangler?

and the list goes on.

Mainly the NPS lawyer's responses were "I believe so your Honor" or " I don't know your Honor".

Then the judge addressed the Intevenors lawyers (ours).Our lawyer contended that the intevenors deserved the right to sit in and weigh in on any type of settlement the NPS and the 3 Stooges ( DOW,Audubon,SELC)are woring towards.This led to a 45 minute battle between the Judge and our lawyer.Ending with the judge granting our lawyer the right to be a aprt of the settlement talks.

The Judge then remarked that he was continueing the case,until Friday April 11th and expected all of the topics to be touched on.He also commented that he found it hard for all these issues to be covered in 7 days,when they have been unable to do it in the past 32 years.

So here is MY ASSESMENT and you take it as you see fit.

I am not confident that a settlement can be reached that the Judge can live with and based upon his comments I believe he wants some serious changes made immediately for any remaining areas that we would be allowed to drive on.

So here it is My Opinion..

The judge will grant the injunction for the proposed closings and will leave the rest open...But..I believe he will temporarily close the other areas until there is a comprehensive management plan to manage and restrict those areas.

I cannot believe that our lawyer will agree to most of what the settlement is agreeing too,thus jamming the situation and leaving the ball 100% in the judge's end of the court,although it always has been in his end.

The judge already said he would have the final say in the settlement and it better meet alot of his concerns.

Now..none of know just what exactly is being discussed in settlement,other than rumors,but we believe that none of it is good..

So..there ya have it..

We have to just sit back and wait until Friday...

In the words of John Couch.."Things will get dark this Friday,but we will have to fight to regain the light and we shall prevail...

The Militia

We Are All Going To Die,So We Might As Well Have Fun Before It Happens