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From
Dennis H.
Tuesday, 28 January 2003
Simcox, companion cited by park rangerBy Tim StellerARIZONA DAILY STAR The leader of a Tombstone citizens' patrol group faces three misdemeanor charges after he walked armed into Coronado National Memorial near the Arizona-Mexico border Sunday. Chris Simcox was with a companion when they walked onto National Park Service land south of Sierra Vista and were stopped by a ranger. Simcox said the two were simply hiking, but Chief Ran-ger Thane Weigand said it appears that they were conducting a border patrol operation without permission. A ranger detained Simcox and his friend, William Dore, for more than three hours before citing both of them, they said. Simcox was charged with carrying a loaded weapon inside a national park, operating without a special use permit and interfering with a law enforcement function. Dore was cited for operating without a special use permit. Rangers confiscated equipment Simcox was carrying: his pistol, two two-way radios, a police scanner, a cellular phone and a digital camera. "It's evidence of him conducting a non-permitted activity in the national park," Weigand said. Simcox, who owns the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper, leads one of at least three citizens' groups in Southern Arizona that patrol the border, sometimes armed, in search of illegal border-crossers. Simcox's group, called Civil Homeland Defense, patrolled on Saturday but not Sunday, he said. Simcox says he and Dore were driving west along the border road when they came to a fence and gate beyond which, a sign said, vehicles were not permitted. So they decided to park and walk in. Simcox says he would not have gone in armed had he realized the fence marked the Coronado National Memorial's boundary. * Contact Tim Steller at 434-4086 or [EMAIL PROTECTED].
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