Has Wally Klump Failed The Law, Or Has The Law Failed Wally?
by J. Zane Walley
AllSouthWest.com
Luther Wallace "Wally" Klump recently marked his 70th birthday. He could not celebrate his threescore and ten on the family ranch in Arizona with his wife, and children and grand children. The old rancher turned 70 in a penitentiary cell with only convicts to commemorate the juncture.
Klump was not in prison for murder, rape, drugs or any of the common offenses against society. His offense was one that astounded the most hardened and cynical of the criminals in the penal complex where he is housed. Klump's "crime" boiled down to "trespassing" cows on Bureau of Land Management property in Arizona's Dos Cabezas Mountains. His fellow inmates understood why Wally was serving time. For his birthday, they made a card with a picture of a grazing cow and a bold caption "BLM Sucks!"
The rawhide tough, tall old rancher has become a father figure and prison Parson to many of the young detainees. As an inmate said in a phone interview, "I thank God for saving me, and having Wally here to guide me to a better life..."
Wally rates respect with the prisoners because of his steadfast refusal to bow to what he believes is "an unreasonable authority." In this case, Federal Judge John M. Roll, U.S. District Court, Tucson, who jailed Klump April 21, 2003, for contempt of court for "failing to follow the Court's order prohibiting the unauthorized grazing of cattle on government allotments." It is common knowledge with his fellow inmates that he can get out of jail at anytime, by simply by having his family remove the "criminal cows" from BLM lands in the Dos Cabezas area.
But on this point, Klump will not budge.
Full story here.
Phaedrus
by J. Zane Walley
AllSouthWest.com
Luther Wallace "Wally" Klump recently marked his 70th birthday. He could not celebrate his threescore and ten on the family ranch in Arizona with his wife, and children and grand children. The old rancher turned 70 in a penitentiary cell with only convicts to commemorate the juncture.
Klump was not in prison for murder, rape, drugs or any of the common offenses against society. His offense was one that astounded the most hardened and cynical of the criminals in the penal complex where he is housed. Klump's "crime" boiled down to "trespassing" cows on Bureau of Land Management property in Arizona's Dos Cabezas Mountains. His fellow inmates understood why Wally was serving time. For his birthday, they made a card with a picture of a grazing cow and a bold caption "BLM Sucks!"
The rawhide tough, tall old rancher has become a father figure and prison Parson to many of the young detainees. As an inmate said in a phone interview, "I thank God for saving me, and having Wally here to guide me to a better life..."
Wally rates respect with the prisoners because of his steadfast refusal to bow to what he believes is "an unreasonable authority." In this case, Federal Judge John M. Roll, U.S. District Court, Tucson, who jailed Klump April 21, 2003, for contempt of court for "failing to follow the Court's order prohibiting the unauthorized grazing of cattle on government allotments." It is common knowledge with his fellow inmates that he can get out of jail at anytime, by simply by having his family remove the "criminal cows" from BLM lands in the Dos Cabezas area.
But on this point, Klump will not budge.
Full story here.
Phaedrus
