A couple received suspended jail sentences Wednesday and was ordered to pay restitution after they pleaded guilty to theft and battery in an altercation last year near their property on Stockyard Road in the Pine Nut Mountains.
East Fork Justice Pro Tem Paul Gilbert sentenced Linda Prehoda, 61, to 30 days suspended, and Leroy Rupert, 67, to 60 days suspended after the 75-year-old victim said they poked him with a piece of rebar and destroyed his helmet and cell phone.
The man said he and a friend were riding all-terrain vehicles on Oct. 24, 2009, from the Johnson Lane area across the Pine Nut mountains south to Fish Springs.
He said they were riding west on a dirt road and came to a locked gate. They turned around and were riding east when a Jeep came up behind the ATVs.
Prehoda reportedly exited the Jeep with a piece of metal rebar, yelling at the men and accusing them of trespassing. The victim said she raised the rebar to strike him, and he said, "you don't want to do that."
He said he placed his right hand on his coat pocket to make her think he had a firearm.
She stopped her advance, but continued yelling.
A second vehicle arrived with Rupert, according to reports, who began cursing at the victims.
Rupert allegedly took the rebar from Prehoda, swung it at the victim, stopped, then poked him in the chest with it.
The victim said he wasn't hurt, but Prehoda damaged his cell phone which he was able to call 911.
"I was never on their property," the victim testified Wednesday. "Listen to the 911 all. For them to get away with a misdemeanor is a travesty."
He agreed to accept $880 reimbursement for his helmet and cell phone.
Prehoda admitted grabbing the helmet and phone and tossing them in a trash fire on their property.
That prompted the victim to ask Gilbert to find out if the couple had placed a curse on him.
"You may pooh-pooh that, but I'd like to know if they put a curse on me at the time they burned the helmet," the man said.
Gilbert reminded the victim that Wednesday's hearing was for sentencing.
"This is not a trial. I am not handling curses," Gilbert said.
Prehoda's lawyer Derrick Lopez said his client felt threatened.
"Why it got to this level, I don't know," Lopez said. "These are not people who belong in jail."
Lopez said his client admitted she shouldn't have destroyed the phone and helmet, but that's why she pleaded guilty to theft.
Rupert claimed the property belonged to him through the Bureau of Indian Affairs allotment program.
"We never touched him," Rupert said. "We are not violent people, we are professional people. We're just sick and tired of these ATV-ers coming up to our area."
In addition to the suspended sentences, the couple was fined $302 each.
Rupert pleaded guilty to battery and Prehoda pleaded guilty to theft.
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