Durango couple set to stand trial in May
Activist Rose Chilcoat and her husband, Mark Franklin, are facing felony charges in San Juan County, Utah, after they allegedly trespassed on private property and closed a gate that prosecutors say was an attempt to deprive cattle access to water. The couple are awaiting trial scheduled in May.
On April Fool’s Day last year, Mark Franklin closed a gate to Zane Odell’s corral on Lime Ridge, a windy rise between the small southeastern Utah towns of Bluff and Mexican Hat.
In the criminal justice fracas that ensued, that is about the only fact all sides agree on as Franklin and his wife, Rose Chilcoat, a prominent environmental activist whose pro-wilderness advocacy has upset San Juan County, Utah, officials for years, are headed to a May 23 trial.
Prosecutors alleged the Durango couple closed the gate with felonious intent – to keep Odell’s cattle from reaching a crucial water source inside the corral.
Read the rest of the story at the Salt Lake Tribune.
