Page 10 - the NOISE July 2014

CITIZEN V. CONCESSIONAIRE: SHOWDOWN AT WING MOUNTAIN
STORY BY CINDY COLE
What started out as an opportunity to take his girlfriend out for a fun trail ride in his Polaris RZR ATV turned into a nightmare
as Vance White was chased down and so in fear for his life that he dialed 911. All of this happened on the Coconino National Forest near the Wing Mountain Snow Play Area on February 16, 2014. And he was chased by employees from Recreation Resource Management.
Mr. White has lived in Flagstaff since he was three and regularly rides his ATV in the forest lands in the area. According to Mr. White, he was in the vicinity of Wing Mountain but had not entered any restricted areas to his knowledge. He was looking for a natural reserve he particularly liked and wanted to show his girlfriend, treading at a leisurely gait, as she was new to riding.
He reached a location called Bill Tank and realized he had missed his turnoff and turned his vehicle around, heading eastbound on a section of Forest Road (FR) 222B. As he retraced his path, he saw a yellow quad heading toward him. Generally, he said, “When you see someone else out on the trail you just wave and drive right by” but he could tell the other driver was attempting to speak to him.
As Mr. White slowed to a stop, the man on the quad pulled up next to him, attempting to speak, but his voice was overpowered by the engines’ growl, and muffled by helmet and mask.
As soon as Mr. White killed his engine, the unidentified man shouted at him “You’re f*cking trespassing! This is private property. You have to get the f*ck out of here!” Mr. White says he was confused because, to his knowledge he was travelling on a road he was permitted to be on — a road that was part of National Forest land and open to the public. He questioned the man’s assertion and admittedly added his own colorful language to the exchange.
He was told again to “Get the f*ck out of here!” Mr. White says that he then questioned the man’s identity and asked: “Who the f*ck are you?”
Mr. White describes the incident as escalating “very quickly.” The man told him to get out of his vehicle but Mr. White still felt this man had no authority to tell him what to do. The man never identified himself, according to Mr. White, as being from the Forest Service or one of its agents, nor was he recognizably law enforcement of any kind. As Mr. White attempted to restart his vehicle and continue on his way he says the man “jumped straight from his vehicle and into mine.”
Mr. White says the man grabbed him by the neck and pinned him in his ATV. “It was a very scary situation,” he said. “He wasn’t choking me or anything, but he was just plain mad!” Mr. White was still strapped into his vehicle via a four-point harness and was still wearing a helmet, mask and goggles over his face and head.
“When he did this to me,” said Mr. White, “he really scared me. I didn’t threaten him in any way. I may have cussed back at him but
I made no threat. And sitting in my vehicle, I really couldn’t tell anything about this man.” Mr. White alleges as he was being held down with force, the man said, “I’m going to teach you a lesson, boy.” Mr. White says that this phrase repeats itself in his head as he recalls the incident. “I don’t know what it was,” says Mr. White, “but he was so mad I hadn’t obeyed him or that I cussed at him or something that he thought he was going to teach me a lesson.”
Mr. White says this man never identified himself as an official for the USFS, RRM or anything else. He said the man went immediately into anger and attack mode and never gave Mr. White a chance to communicate with him in a reasonable manner. Mr. White says he instinctively grabbed at the man’s hand through his thick padded driving gloves and managed to wrestle it off of his neck. He quickly released his harness, exited his vehicle and removed his helmet.
“I was ready to defend myself,” he says. “I know this man harmed me but I also
recognized at this point he seemed to realize he did something wrong and he was stepping away from me. He seemed to realize his own anger was out of control and he stepped around to the other side of his quad.”
Mr. White says the next thing he did was call 911 to report he had been assaulted. As he did so, he saw another yellow quad approaching him with a female driver on it. He said he noticed she was wearing an orange hunting vest but did not otherwise see any identifying marks or emblems.
Immediately, he says, she shouted at him saying he was “going to jail.” He says, “I’m still not sure who these people are or why they think I am going to jail or that I am trespassing.” The thought crossed his mind that maybe someone had purchased the land he had travelled through before, but he did not remember seeing any ‘private property’ signs posted. “I live three miles down the road,” he says, “and I know this is Forest Service land I’m on.”
Mr. White says the woman got off her quad with a walkie-talkie in her hand and shoved him in the chest with it, saying, “you’re not going anywhere.” He still had a 911 dispatcher on the line who asked him if he was in immediate danger. When he replied that he was, he says the dispatcher advised him to get in his vehicle and leave the area. He says the woman tried to block his path but got out of the way when he told her to move, without further physical confrontation. Mr. White’s companion was still buckled into his ATV and was “scared to death.”
Once Mr. White got back into his vehicle, he proceeded down Forest Road 222B while still speaking to the emergency dispatcher, providing his name and describing the other four wheelers and their drivers. After proceeding for about a mile, the dispatcher asked Mr. White to pull over as she was having trouble hearing him with the ambient noise of the open vehicle interfering with his cell phone. At this point, Mr. White noticed the rear view mirror of his ATV had been damaged during the physical encounter with
PHOTO BY VANCE WHITE
the still unidentified man. The dispatcher directed Mr. White to continue along the road to where it intersects Highway 180 to meet sheriff’s deputies who were on their way.
As he examined the damaged rear view mirror, Mr. White saw a white pickup truck speeding toward him. He resumed his route to the highway intersection. The dispatcher instructed Mr. White to get on eastbound Hwy 180 as quickly as he could. But when he reached the intersection there was an impenetrable gate in his path.
Behind him, he says, the pickup came to an earth-whipping halt and another man emerged and came “charging at me very fast.” He says he immediately took a defensive stance and told the man to stay away from him. He says this man got within a few feet of him and yelled, “You’re going to jail motherf*cker!”
The 911 dispatcher instructed Mr. White to put distance between himself and the approaching man. When this man turned around and started back toward the pickup, Mr. White instructed his girlfriend to quickly unbuckle and exit the vehicle, stating he was afraid the man would return with a weapon. The man continued to yell at him but Mr. White could see he had not obtained any weapon.
Mr. White and his companion left his ATV and proceeded to the highway side of the locked gate. He now spotted the two yellow quads approaching the area. Mr. White had his girlfriend call his parents on her cell phone as he wanted some way to keep her safe in the event he became incapacitated. He says it was all he could think to do as he continued to talk to the emergency dispatcher on his own phone. Within moments, several Coconino County Sheriff vehicles arrived on the scene.
The deputies who arrived kept the parties separated and began taking statements from everyone. Mr. White says one of the deputies asked him if he was sure he hadn’t exited his vehicle first and confronted the first man on the quad. Mr. White insisted the events had happened as described.
10 • JUNE 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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