RAPID CITY, S.D. – A South Dakota ranch couple who has been indicted on separate counts for felony criminal charges of theft of federal property have been given a court date of November 19, 2024 in federal court in Rapid City.
Ranchers Charles and Health Maude, Caputa, S.D., were charged separately, meaning they both were required to retain separate attorneys. They could each be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.
They have been charged with the alleged illegal use of public National Grasslands for crop cultivation and cattle grazing.
At issue is a property boundary between the Maudes and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The land assumed to be in question and the management practices the USFS is alleging are “theft,” have been in place for generations.
The Maude’s were indicted on June 20, 2024 by the USFS on charges of “theft of government property” related to a small piece of USFS land surrounded by the Maude’s private land – land the family has stewarded since the early 1900s.
The official wording on the grand jury indictment against the Caputa farm and ranch couple, says that the couple both “did knowingly steal, purloin and convert to their own use, National Grasslands managed by the United States Department of Agriculture…approximately 25 acres of National Grasslands for cultivation and approximately 25 acres of National Grasslands for grazing cattle, having a value in excess of $1,000, and did aid and abet each other, all in violation of U.S.C. §§ 641 and 2.”
Several agriculture organizations and individuals have come to the Maude’s defense. Those groups include the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Rancher’s Cattlemen Legal Action Fund-United Stockgrowers of America, United States Cattlemen’s Association, Public Lands Council, Association of National Grasslands, South Dakota Farm Bureau, South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association, South Dakota Farmers Union, South Dakota Public Lands Council, Wyoming Farm Bureau, Wyoming House of Representatives Majority Floor Leader Chip Neiman, Pennington County Fire administrator, many South Dakota and Wyoming County Commissions, and others.
RELATED: Ag industry, Members of Congress Rally for South Dakota Ranchers Charged In Public Lands Dispute
The groups say the Forest Service has a, “long and shameful history of confronting ranchers in South Dakota, and their escalation to imprisonment over a century-old fence line has shaken the confidence of every permittee.”
“The Maude family are public lands permittees in good standing, and they have always been the first to step forward as constructive partners in federal land management,” says Public Lands Council President Mark Roeber, a public lands grazing permittee as well. “This case is a prime example of what can happen when federal agencies view ranchers as enemies, rather than partners. I urge the U.S. Forest Service to rethink their plan to slap handcuffs on these hardworking ranchers and instead pursue an alternative resolution to this issue.”
Questions remain as to the criminal (versus civil) approach taken by the USFS since a number of legal resolutions are available to mutually address boundary issues on federal permits. Both the Small Tract Act and Title and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act provide the structure to resolve boundary and use disputes. There is also the option of a land trade.
As of now, there is no information publicly available that would indicate USFS approached the Maude’s with any of these resolution opportunities before filing criminal charges.
