EPA said Joe needed permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to dig the ponds. The federal government criminally prosecuted him, and at age 77 he was sent to prison for 18 months and fined $130,000, a conviction upheld by…
The Navy veteran argued that he didn’t violate the Clean Water Act because digging the ponds did not discharge any soil to navigable waters, since the trickle in the channel didn’t constitute navigable waters. The largest navigable body of…
Now the 9th Circuit has ordered that Joe Robertson’s pending motion for rehearing should be postponed until the Supreme Court releases its decision in Hughes. (Joe has already served his full prison sentence and is currently back home in Montana where his legal problems…
Robertson was released into his own custody to enter into a halfway house in Butte, Montana, with plans to later be admitted to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Fort Harrison, Montana. Robertson hopes to enter a PTSD inpatient program…
The EPA alleged Robertson allowed dirt from the ponds to enter a tributary of nearby Cataract Creek. The federal agency subsequently charged and convicted Robertson of three counts of destruction and degradation of publicly owned property. He was sentenced to…
"The Corps and EPA are not trying to micromanage farmers, they are trying to stop farmers from farming their fields. They're trying to turn our farmland into habitat preservation. They're simply trying to chase us off of our land." ~John…