RAPID CITY, S.D. – Following a 90-day continuance, a jury trial in the case of a West River ranch couple indicted on separate counts for felony criminal charges of theft of federal property is set for April 29, 2025.
They have been charged with the alleged illegal use of public National Grasslands for crop cultivation and cattle grazing.
At issue is a property boundary between the Maudes and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The land assumed to be in question and the management practices the USFS is alleging are “theft,” have been in place for generations.
The Maude’s were indicted on June 20, 2024 by the USFS on charges of “theft of government property” related to a small piece of USFS land surrounded by the Maude’s private land – land the family has stewarded since the early 1900s.
The official wording on the grand jury indictment against the Caputa farm and ranch couple, says 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.”
Several agriculture organizations and individuals have come to the Maude’s defense.
In December of 2024, Senator Rounds introduced the Fenceline Fairness Act, to create a formal mediation process for land boundary disputes between landowners and the United States Forest Service (USFS).
Congresswoman Harriet Hageman introduced the Protecting Agricultural Spaces Through Effective Ranching Strategies (PASTURES) Act which will safeguard landowners with property adjacent to federally leased land from federal enforcement actions related to livestock trespassing.
“My bill will prohibit federal land management agencies from enforcing a trespass after permits or leases are adjusted or rescinded – until the relevant land management agency constructs a fence to keep the livestock out,” Hageman said in a news release.
Barring any further continuances or a dismissal, the jury trial will begin at 9:00a.m. (MT), in federal district court in Rapid City.
