Fate of Public Land Dispute Remains Unclear as Politicians Cheer Dismissal of Ranchers’ Charges

By Joshua Haiar

State and federal officeholders celebrated Wednesday in Washington, D.C., after prosecutors dropped criminal charges against a South Dakota ranch couple accused of using public land without permission or payment.

Meanwhile, basic questions went unanswered.

Will the couple continue to use the land? Will they have to start paying a fee? Or is it their land?

State Rep. Liz May, R-Kyle, was not in D.C., but was given a shoutout by the ranch couple for her advocacy on their behalf. May isn’t ready to cheer yet.

“We still don’t know if they can even use the land,” May said. “Is the case truly over?”

In June, a federal grand jury in South Dakota indicted Charles and Heather Maude, of rural Caputa in the western part of the state. The charge was theft of government property. The couple faced possible prison time and fines.

The indictment said the Maudes “did knowingly steal, purloin, and convert to their own use” national grasslands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The land in question, according to the indictment, consisted of 25 acres for cultivation and 25 acres for grazing cattle. 

The Maudes have said the prosecution was an overreaction to a property line dispute on land their family has used for decades.

A federal prosecutor filed for a dismissal of the charges Monday without explanation, and a judge granted the dismissal, following pleas from Republican politicians and officeholders to President Trump’s administration. 

Some of those officeholders gathered with the Maudes on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., for a press conference that was livestreamed on the internet. Speakers included former South Dakota Governor and current U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and several South Dakota politicians: U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, and Gov. Larry Rhoden. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, also spoke.

South Dakota Searchlight reached out to the South Dakota lawmakers’ offices afterward. They did not know the future status of the federal land in question, or the status of the Maudes’ right to use it.

Some of the speakers alleged that the prosecution of the Maudes was politically motivated. The U.S. Department of Agriculture made that claim in a news release Monday, calling the case “a senseless politically motivated prosecution waged by the Biden administration.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Dakota, which brought the charges, did not respond when asked by South Dakota Searchlight. The U.S. attorney for South Dakota, Alison Ramsdell, was appointed during the Biden administration.

Rollins announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a new complaint portal for farmers and ranchers “who have fallen victim to unfair and politically motivated lawfare originating under the Biden administration” to request an investigation.

Rounds highlighted a bill he’s working on that would establish a mediation process for land boundary disputes between private landowners and the U.S. Forest Service. 

This story was originally published by South Dakota Searchlight, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.