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On December 2, 2008 the grand jury in the Federal District Court of Nevada returned an indictment to the court charging the Truckee Carson Irrigation District (TCID) and four of it’s employees: David Overvold, Lyman McConnell, Shelby Cecil, and John Baker with conspiracy to defraud the United States Bureau of Reclamation, falsification of records, false claims, and false statements.
TCID manages the Newlands Project in Northern Nevada pursuant to the Operating Criteria and Procedures established by federal rules and regulation (43 CFR 418.1 et seq.). These federal indictments will have long range effects to those in the Newlands Project!
The charges allege that TCID and its employees essentially mis-managed the district by fraudulently obtaining incentive credits via submitting false data as to water deliveries. The list goes on.
If convicted, each individual defendant faces up to 20 years in prison for each falsification of record count, and five years in prison for each count of false claims, false statements, and conspiracy to defraud the US. The individual defendants also face maximum possible fines of $250,000 as to each count. If TCID is convicted it could be fined for each count twice the gross gain or loss suffered to another, or $500,000. TCID could also be subject to probation and a court-ordered monitoring program, among other things.
TCID is now faced with hiring criminal attorneys to represent the district and the four charged employees. With these costs of all the other pending litigations and issues the district is facing, TCID approved a plan to reduce their work force to approximately half its current size.
What will happen next? Will the water be flowing for the 2009 irrigation season? Stay tuned.
