NJFFSA16
01-27-2003, 03:22 AM
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - A former U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
firefighter has pleaded guilty to illegally setting a blaze on the
Mescalero Apache Reservation.
Brian Neil Klinekole, 27, appeared Thursday in U.S. District
Court and admitted to setting the 11-acre Crooked Fire in the
Lincoln National Forest on March 12.
Klinekole, a former BIA forestry technician who worked as a
member of a fire engine crew, told U.S. District Judge John E.
Conway that he flung a lit cigarette that started the Crooked Fire
while working in the forest in March.
As part of a plea deal, Klinekole's lawyer and prosecutors
agreed that his prison sentence may range between two and 2½ years.
Klinekole originally had faced one count for the Palmer Tank 2
Fire about May 24, 2001; two counts for the Crooked Fire; two
counts for the Peso One and Two Fires around April 20; and one
count for the Chihuahua Fire around April 20.
The counts connected to the other fires are to be dismissed at
sentencing within 75 days.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Valencia has said at a prior
hearing that Klinekole gave two different reasons for starting the
fire - family problems and the need to work.
Klinekole's indictment came three months after the formation of
the Wildfire Investigation Task Force headed by Valencia.
In the past two years, 160 arsons were reported in the area,
U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has said.
Meanwhile, court documents filed Thursday indicate that Paul
James Valdez, who took a census of the endangered Mexican spotted
owl for the Mescalero tribe, is scheduled for a hearing to change
his plea Jan. 31.
Valdez, 27, of Tularosa, had pleaded innocent to one count of
arson and making a false report in the half-acre Lower Cooley Fire.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
firefighter has pleaded guilty to illegally setting a blaze on the
Mescalero Apache Reservation.
Brian Neil Klinekole, 27, appeared Thursday in U.S. District
Court and admitted to setting the 11-acre Crooked Fire in the
Lincoln National Forest on March 12.
Klinekole, a former BIA forestry technician who worked as a
member of a fire engine crew, told U.S. District Judge John E.
Conway that he flung a lit cigarette that started the Crooked Fire
while working in the forest in March.
As part of a plea deal, Klinekole's lawyer and prosecutors
agreed that his prison sentence may range between two and 2½ years.
Klinekole originally had faced one count for the Palmer Tank 2
Fire about May 24, 2001; two counts for the Crooked Fire; two
counts for the Peso One and Two Fires around April 20; and one
count for the Chihuahua Fire around April 20.
The counts connected to the other fires are to be dismissed at
sentencing within 75 days.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Valencia has said at a prior
hearing that Klinekole gave two different reasons for starting the
fire - family problems and the need to work.
Klinekole's indictment came three months after the formation of
the Wildfire Investigation Task Force headed by Valencia.
In the past two years, 160 arsons were reported in the area,
U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has said.
Meanwhile, court documents filed Thursday indicate that Paul
James Valdez, who took a census of the endangered Mexican spotted
owl for the Mescalero tribe, is scheduled for a hearing to change
his plea Jan. 31.
Valdez, 27, of Tularosa, had pleaded innocent to one count of
arson and making a false report in the half-acre Lower Cooley Fire.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)