United States v. Maynard Charles Campbell, Jr.

42 F.3d 1199, 94 Daily Journal DAR 17139, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9267, 25 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20852, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 34063, 1994 WL 673760
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 5, 1994
Docket93-10462
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 42 F.3d 1199 (United States v. Maynard Charles Campbell, Jr.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Maynard Charles Campbell, Jr., 42 F.3d 1199, 94 Daily Journal DAR 17139, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9267, 25 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20852, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 34063, 1994 WL 673760 (9th Cir. 1994).

Opinion

GOODWIN, Circuit Judge:

Maynard C. Campbell appeals his felony convictions for violating 18 U.S.C. §§ 641 (theft of government property) and 1361 (depredation against government property). Campbell harvested and sold federal timber taken from Forest Service land, and constructed berms on Forest Service roads, without authorization. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

This appeal concerns events that occurred on an unpatented mining claim known as the Red Poffrei Extension (“the Extension”), located within the Klamath National Forest. In 1988, Eileen Kunkel owned the Extension. Her late husband, James, had located the Extension in 1952. She also owned a patented mining claim known as Red Poffrei, on land adjacent to the Extension. In 1988, she met the appellant, Maynard Campbell, and the two began mining the Extension the following year. At that time, Campbell had about ten years’ experience as a prospector-miner.

In February and March of 1991, Campbell and Kunkel sent notices of intent to the Forest Service pledging that mining activity on the Extension would cover no more than *1202 half an acre and would involve no substantial surface disturbances. They referred the Forest Service to the Extension’s 1985 plan of operations for further clarification. The 1985 plan of operations expressly indicated that timber would not be cut without Forest Service approval.

Only one month later, in April 1991; Campbell and Kunkel struck a deal with a commercial logger and a lumber purchaser to cut and sell timber from Red Poffrei and the Extension. Between July and November of that year, approximately nine acres of old growth timber were removed from the Extension.

In January 1992, several months after the timber harvest, Campbell and Kunkel sent a new notice of intent to the Forest Service. The new notice was substantially identical to the 1991 notice and did not indicate that the Extension had already been logged. After receiving the 1992 notice, the Forest Service sought additional assurances that there would be no logging on the Extension. Campbell and Kunkel replied: “Our immediate plans are to complete the patenting process. At this time it appears we should be able to achieve that objective without a tree harvest program.... Our operations are nothing new.”

The unauthorized timber harvest was first discovered when wildlife biologists surveying .areas within the Klamath National Forest for Northern Spotted Owl Habitat came across several berms, or earthen roadblocks, on a Forest Service access road that ran through the Extension. The biologists grew suspicious, and upon closer inspection discovered the scene of the crime. An undercover agent sent to investigate the Extension discovered that some efforts had been made to conceal the fact that the timber harvest had taken place on federal land. Markers indicating Forest Service boundary lines had been altered. The original corner monument from Red Poffrei, which bore the legend “U.S.D.A. Forest Service, unlawful to disturb,” had been moved. Trees formerly adjacent to the moved monument, which had signs on them indicating the distance and direction to the original location of the monument, had that information scratched out. A tree bearing the distance to the original survey points had been cut and removed. Blaze marks on trees separating the patent land from the patent application land were covered with dirt and brown paint. When asked by the undercover agent about the logging, Campbell did not admit his role, and falsely stated that the trees had been logged by the Forest Service.

After a jury trial, Campbell was found guilty of stealing federal timber and damaging the Forest Service access road. He was sentenced to concurrent 24 month sentences on each count, and ordered to make $30,000 restitution. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Primary Jurisdiction

Whether the district court should have applied the doctrine of “primary jurisdiction” to postpone criminal proceedings is a question of law we review de novo. United States v. Yellow Freight System, Inc., 762 F.2d 737, 739 (9th Cir.1985).

Campbell argues that criminal proceedings in the district court should have been suspended pending collateral review by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”). According to Campbell, the BLM should have been called upon to determine whether the BLM’s patent application regulations required him to remove trees from the Extension in order to perfect his patent.

Campbell did not raise the issue of “primary jurisdiction” until after trial, and it may not now be heard. The entry of a judgment in this case resolved all issues bearing on matters within agency competence. Referral to the BLM at this stage would only produce pointless delay. “The doctrine of primary jurisdiction, despite what the term may imply, does not speak to the jurisdictional power of the federal courts.” United States v. Bessemer and Lake Erie R. Co., 717 F.2d 593, 599 (D.C.Cir.1983) (Entry of a nolo plea to a conspiracy charge barred the defendant from raising the doctrine of primary jurisdiction for the first time on appeal.).

*1203 B. Title To The Surface Resources

Campbell next argues that the United States did not have legal title to the trees or access road. We review legal questions de novo. United States v. Hughes Aircraft Co., Inc., 20 F.3d 974, 977 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 482, 130 L.Ed.2d 395 (1994).

At the time of the unauthorized timber harvest, the Extension was an unpatent-ed mining claim. Until a patent is issued, the government has broad authority to manage public lands. Swanson v. Babbitt, 3 F.3d 1348, 1350 (9th Cir.1993).

In United States v. Doremus, 888 F.2d 630 (9th Cir.1989), two miners cut timber on National Forest lands without an approved plan of operations. We upheld their convictions for damaging “any natural feature or other property of the United States” (36 C.F.R. § 261.9(a)) (1987). We rejected the argument, raised by Campbell on this appeal, that in order to prosecute the government must first prove that the unauthorized logging was not “reasonably incident” to legitimate mining operations under 30 U.S.C. § 612. Here, as in Doremus, “[t]he flaw in appellant’s argument is that 30 U.S.C.

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42 F.3d 1199, 94 Daily Journal DAR 17139, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9267, 25 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20852, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 34063, 1994 WL 673760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-maynard-charles-campbell-jr-ca9-1994.