THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310281
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
A pretrial agreement made Monday between Ernie Bowden and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials placed the Carova cattleman under court supervision for a year for not corralling his herd.
Bowden, chairman of the Currituck County Board of Commissioners, was charged in August with permitting cattle to roam at large on federal wildlife property near his Outer Banks ranch.
About an hour before a U.S. Eastern District Court trial in Elizabeth City was scheduled to begin, Bowden and his attorney, John Graham, and Assistant U.S. District Attorney Steve Metheny agreed to a ``pretrial diversion'' settlement that placed him under court supervision.
``Basically, he was put on probation before trial, although he was not found guilty. No trial was set,'' said Mike Panz, a law enforcement officer for both the Mackay Island and Currituck national wildlife refuges.
``He agreed to do certain things to satisfy us in keeping his cattle off the refuge.''
Those court-approved conditions require that Bowden not violate any local, state or federal laws, keep his cattle off the Currituck refuge, maintain appropriate fencing and allow federal inspections of that fence.
``A violation of those conditions would bring him back in court,'' Panz said.
He said the settlement was a little unusual. ``Pretrial diversions are usually used with juveniles. This is the first that I've heard of it being used for an adult.''
In a telephone interview from his home Monday afternoon, the 70-year-old Bowden said, ``I just feel like I got the best I could get.''
He continued to maintain his innocence, suggesting that a small head of cattle belonging to a neighbor may be the culprits.
Prior to the summonses, U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials said they repeatedly warned Bowden to keep his cattle off the 1,800-acre Currituck National Wildlife Refuge, established a decade ago as a safe haven for ducks, geese and other migrating waterfowl.
But cows - as many as 45 on some days - continued to slip through Bowden's 1.5-mile-long fence and graze on lush grasses used by waterfowl, said Ken Merritt, manager of the Mackay Island and Currituck national wildlife refuges.
A year ago, a cow smashed a nest of piping plovers, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. However, officials did not know if the animal belonged to Bowden, Merritt said Monday.
``That's a big loss,'' he said. ``There aren't many piping plovers left on the Outer Banks.''
Bowden said that he fixed the fence at a cost of $2,500 in October and since has sold about 40 head of cattle in Smithfield, Va.
He said he plans to sell all but six to 12 cows on his ranch, where he also keeps horses, buffalo, goats and a llama.
``I'll keep those more as a symbolic thing,'' he said. ``My family has been in the cattle business for many, many years. If I woke up one morning and didn't have a cow, I don't know what I'd do.'' by CNB