DeChristopher trial takes unexpected turn

SALT LAKE CITY -- The trial of activist Tim DeChristopher took an abrupt turn Tuesday afternoon when Judge Dee Benson agreed to hear new arguments that relate to the credibility of a botched Bureau of Land Management auction.

The issue came to a head just before the jury was dismissed for the day after five hours of prosecution witness testimony. Several BLM employees took the witness stand on the opening day of DeChristopher's trial. The 29-year-old environmental activist is being prosecuted on two criminal charges stemming from his actions at a December 2008 BLM auction, in which he ran up bids on more than a dozen parcels of land valued at nearly $1.9 million with no intention of paying.

Judge allows arguments about auction credibility

Kent Hoffman, who is the assistant director of the federal agency over lands and minerals, described how the cost of putting on the auction was calculated.

In his description of that accounting, Hoffman said employees reviewed documents and letters of interest from oil and gas companies. That review also included looking at various environmental components of the land in question, including such considerations as the endangered species act.

Defense attorney Ron Yengich said because the prosecution brought up this component of the preparation that went into the auction, the defense should be allowed to discuss the merits of the auction, which he contends were improper.

Benson excused the jury from the courtroom during this phase of the trial and was to reconvene court at 4:30 to hear the arguments in more detail. He did warn the defense team they were treading a narrow path that will require a lot of convincing on their part.

The judge said he is not going to let the arguments be "turned into a debate about whether the BLM dotted all their I's and crossed all their T's … It's not about that. I am not going to let it get dragged into it."

Benson said to do so would be confusing and misleading.

The judge further stressed that for the purposes of the defense it would have to prove that there was no auction at all, not simply that it was imperfect.

"I don't see any basis that Mr. DeChristopher is not guilty because the auction may not have been a perfect auction," Benson said. "This trial is not a perfect trial, but it is still a trial."

Early testimony details DeChristopher's actions at auction

Earlier, a BLM special agent testified that he watched DeChristopher through much of the controversial auction and said it soon became clear that DeChristopher "was in it to win it."

Dan Love said DeChristopher raised suspicions early on with his behavior at the Dec. 19, 2008, auction because of his casual dress and whispered conversations with a man later identified as his roommate.

Love said the pair took their seats in the fifth row of the auction's participants among other bidders. Early on, through about 10 bidding cycles, DeChristopher raised his No. 70 placard to compete with other bidders but did not win, Love testified.

DeChristopher's first successful effort came with a $500 price tag. After DeChristopher won, Love said, "He appeared to have a shocked look on his face. In essence he was stuck with that bid." Love testified that earlier suspicions were somewhat abated when DeChristopher began to bid.

"He had me fooled for a period of time," he said. "I began to scan the crowd to look for other disruptions."

Eventually, Love said, it was apparent that Christopher was beginning to gain confidence and won a series of consecutive parcels.

"I had a suspicion that it went beyond legitimately bidding," Love said. "Because his bidding pattern was inflating the price of the parcels."

Love testified that he was in plain clothes and specifically assigned to watch for potential disruptions inside the auction and purposely moved to the front of the room to keep an eye on DeChristopher.

At one point, other bidders began to leave but one man — who was expected to also testify for the prosecution — looked over his left shoulder to stare at DeChristopher.

"DeChristopher stared at him and smirked. ... It was a sarcastic smile, visual enough for me to realize there was a problem," Love said.

The auction was eventually stopped and Love testified that he asked to speak to DeChristopher alone. He said DeChristopher "laughed" when told the results of his bidding that day — 14 parcels valued at nearly $1.8 million.

In cross-examination, Yengich said Love was a professionally trained officer with 16 years of experience who could have stopped the fraudulent bidding if he chose to.

"You did say he looked out of place," Yengich said. "You could stop him from doing anything. You did not take that simple step."

Yengich also questioned Love about the federal agency's decision to forgive the bids made by others in the room as the result of the botched auction.

He pointed out that DeChristopher was not afforded the same opportunity. "So forgiveness is not given to the sinner, but given to everyone else," Yengich said.

Love, in essence responded that, the "forgiveness option" was not extended to DeChristopher because it was the activist's actions that disrupted the process of the auction.

Diane Carol McComb also took the stand Tuesday. She was working at the front desk of the federal agency's downtown office on Dec. 19, 2008, when DeChristopher walked in. She testified that she asked everyone who walked through the door if they were an observer, a member of the media, or a bidder.

"(DeChristopher) told me he was a bidder," she said.

DeChristopher has said he did it out of protest — to preserve a "livable" planet for generations to come — in contrast what he says were Bush administration land management policies that were a welcome mat to oil and gas companies.

Prosecutor: ‘This case isn't complicated'

Earlier in the morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Romney said the prosecution of DeChristopher is "anything but a complicated case," adding that the laws are very straightforward.

In his opening argument before the court Romney said DeChristopher told BLM special agent Dan Love he deliberately posed as a bidder, he was unemployed and understood what he did was wrong.

Romney explained to the jury that multiple people opposed to the oil and gas auction were outside the agency's office expressing their displeasure. "They marched, they chanted, they made signs," Romney said. "They made their dissension known, and did so within the bounds of the law."

In contrast, he said, DeChristopher "set out to derail the auction and prevent the BLM from carrying out the auction."

The eight-man, four-woman jury did not hear from DeChristopher's defense team Tuesday morning.

Yengich said he was reserving his opening statements for the conclusion of the state's case.

The 12 jurors — plus two alternates — were culled Monday from a pool of 70 prospective jurors.

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the charges, which are violation of an onshore oil and gas leasing act and deliberately making a false statement, a charge arising from his registration as a bidder.

DeChristopher won't be able to tell jury why he was compelled to make the bids at the BLM auction. Benson said the activist is not allowed to raise the so-called "necessity defense" — meaning he was forced to choose the lesser of two evils to right a wrong. That argument would have opened the door to introduce global warming and detrimental environmental impacts as motivators that drove DeChristopher to violate the law. Benson said the case failed to meet the legal test because other, lawful options were available to DeChristopher.

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Story written by Amy Joi O'Donoghue with contributions from Shara Park.

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