May 27 Deadline Set for Owner to ‘Submit Himself’ to Court Order

MONTROSE — A Montrose County Judge has given Jeremiah Aguilar, the owner of the 107-pound American Allaunt canine named Dutch sentenced to death after attacking a woman last year, a "reasonable opportunity" to resolve his status as a "fugitive from justice" before she dismisses Aguilar's appeal in the dog's euthanasia order.

Last Friday Associate Montrose County Judge Julie Huffman, who is presiding over Aguilar's appeal, issued an order stating if Aguilar returns to Montrose and "submits himself to the orders of the trial court no later than 4 p.m. on Monday, May 27th, then the court shall not dismiss this appeal."

Aguilar failed to appear for a contempt of Municipal Court hearing in April and has not surrendered the animal to officers as ordered by Montrose Municipal Court Judge Richard Brown after a trial last February. While Dutch was ordered to be euthanized, Brown's order stated Dutch would not be harmed before the outcome of the appeal.

Aguilar, a disabled veteran of the U.S. Army, is appealing both his Montrose Municipal Court conviction and the euthanasia order. Aguilar asserted that because he is not an "escaped prisoner" his appeal is protected under the Fugitive Disentitlement Doctrine.

Huffman wrote Aguilar has fled the jurisdiction of both the trial court and the appellate court and his "status as a fugitive from justice is not cured by the efforts of his council to pursue the appeal in his absence."

Quoting previous court rulings Huffman also said, "a defendant who has voluntarily fled and remains a fugitive from justice during appeal, is not entitled to appellate relief."

"With the failure to appear, we are looking for a dismissal," Montrose City Attorney Stephen Alcorn previously told The Watch.

The victim in the Nov. 14, 2012 attack was treated for "deep bite wounds” to her buttock, thigh and hand," according to a press release from the city after the attack. The bites severed an artery and caused a compound fracture to her middle finger of her right hand. The victim has accrued over $28,000 in medical expenses since the attack. 

Aguilar's appeal was scheduled for a three-person jury trial May 16-17.  It remains unknown from Aguilar's legal representation (the Lancaster Law Firm of Benton, Ark.) what Aguilar's next move will be.

Aguilar told Brown he suffers flashbacks, extreme fear and anxiety and loss of security from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and said Dutch helps him cope with his condition. Aguilar maintains that Dutch is a service dog, a contention that has drawn hundreds of thousands of comments on social media worldwide. 

"If Mr. Aguilar chooses to remain a fugitive from justice, then the court shall dismiss this appeal without further notice on May 27th at 4 p.m.," Huffman's order reads. 

wwoody@watchnewspapers.com

Twitter.com/williamwoodyCO

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‘Bag It’ Director Premieres New Work at Mountainfilm

TELLURIDE – From dominant local news story to world premiere at Mountainfilm, the controversy around a proposed uranium mill 50 miles upwind of Telluride has now become a documentary film by Suzan Beraza, acclaimed director of Bag It.

Uranium Drive-In takes a look, from both sides, at the conundrums involved: jobs versus environment, hardscrabble West End versus resort-wealthy East End. The film, which takes its name from a legendary movie-theatre sign in the community of Naturita, where the film is set, revolves around the proposed Piñon Ridge Uranium Mill in the Paradox Valley, and the opposition to the mill by a Telluride-based environmental group, versus the feelings of many in Naturita, and neighboring Nucla, who are desperate for jobs and the economic recovery they believe a mill would bring. At bottom, it is an emotional tug of war between two groups of people, two cultures – one fixated on the dangers a uranium mill would pose to the natural world, and the other equally focused on putting food on the table. (As one Naturita resident put it of her town’s economic decline, “It’s almost like we’re still surviving, but it’s kinda just like those last few breaths. We wanna keep breathing, but we’ve gotta get something in here to do it.”) 

The contrast between the two points of view was as simple as that. Or so it seemed to director Beraza before she picked up her camera and investigated, and was surprised to find nothing simple about this at all.

Beraza lives in Telluride, and had followed the controversy surrounding the mill for some time. “It was happening so close by,” she said. “Living in Telluride, the thought about the mill was, it’s a really bad idea. I was curious to know why.” When the director arrived in Naturita and began interviewing residents, she found, “like so many things,” answers “were not clear cut.” In that sense, she said, making Bag It was simpler. So was its message: “We use too many disposable plastic bags. We know that,” she said. Uranium, by contrast, turned out to be less about the science, and more about the emotions. Beraza hadn’t originally intended it that way, but that was what she found. “As a filmmaker, you want to come up with a solution,” she said. “But once you dive in and get involved, you realize the faces on the other side of this are human.” Beraza found the contrast between the story she thought she had and the one she got compelling and surprising, “definitely different from what we expected.”

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently approved the radioactive materials license for Energy Fuels, Inc., the Canadian company that seeks to develop the Piñon Ridge Mill. All that remains is a CDPHE air quality permit before development can begin. The timing of Mountainfilm and her movie’s debut “is really an amazing coincidence” given Energy Fuels’ recent license approval, Beraza said. (She tried several times to interview the company’s CEO, but the firm declined.) 

Making Uranium was a learning experience, one the director is eager to repeat. “When you start, you have a sense of what you think you’re going to make, but no idea of where you may ultimately end up,” she said. “Obviously, you can’t be completely clueless” about how a film will progress, “but you also have to be open to the fact that the journey may take you where you didn’t expect, and that’s the place you need to go.” Thus the difference between an exposé, such as Bag It, and a classic documentary, which seeks not only to convey a message but to present several sides of a story. Documentary making “is a great lesson in improvisation,” Beraza summed up. Like being a good reporter. Uranium Drive-In screens at the Palm this Saturday, May 25 at 6:15 p.m., and again on Sunday, May 26 at 12:15 p.m. The director will be on hand following both showings to answer questions. 

From Adrenaline to ‘Issues That Matter’

TELLURIDE – Mountainfilm always presents a filmic mix: of pure-sports adrenaline and crucial issues, from stunning beauty to social responsibility.

This year, the festival’s 35th, is no different. In fact, Festival Director David Holbrooke describes this year’s line up as “extraordinarily diverse and high quality.

"Our films are really strong this year across the board,” he said. “Whether they are climbing, environmental or just general interest films, we have been struck by how well-made they are. While there are always lots of compelling subjects for us to choose from, it’s very unusual to see such consistent high quality up and down the playlist."

At the heart of Mountainfilm’s mission, and reflected clearly throughout the final list of some 90 films, are “issues that matter,” films that take, in the words of festival Executive Director Peter Kenworthy, “a penetrating look at critical contemporary matters.”

“For instance,” Holbrooke said, “there is a strong group of films about the environment, particularly about how we get our energy (including Gasland II and Uranium Drive-in). Then, we have three films that look at combat, in Dirty Wars, Manhunt and Which Way is the Front Line from Here? Together they are a commentary on America's perpetual state of war.”

Dirty Wars is a disturbing story about American military might gone bad that weaves together the tragic effects of a drone strike intended for a cabal of terrorists that instead hits a Yemeni wedding party.

Manhunt tells of the CIA’s tracking of Osama bin Laden for over a decade prior to 9/11 and the painful mix of ignorance and incompetence that left that intelligence largely unheeded.

Which Way is the Front Line from Here? is author Sebastian Yunger’s tribute to fellow journalist, photographer and activist Tim Hetherington, who was killed covering the Libyan civil war.

On the sport and adventure side of the ledger, this year’s festival is loaded with beauties.

Black-and-white filming is used to its most exquisite effect in two shorts about skiing (The Black Line) and the freedom that comes with leaving the bounds of earth – on skis, snowboards, bikes or kayaks (Joy of Air).

Maidentrip tells the enchanting story of a 14-year-old Dutch girl who insists on sailing solo around the world, in spite of her country’s attempts to stop her.

Genius film editor, and master of super slow motion Anson Fogel returns to Telluride with a mesmerizing, over-the-falls kayak adventure in a steaming Mexican jungle (Cascada).

At the other end of the world, two irrepressible young Norwegians set out to survive a full year on their own in a remote cove in this gorgeous video journal of surfing (and garbage cleanup) north of the Arctic Circle (North of the Sun).

Director Holbrooke offered the following further examples of this year’s powerful and varied line up:

The Crash Reel – An unflinching film by Oscar-nominated director Lucy Walker that chronicles the traumatic brain injury suffered by Olympics-bound snowboarder Kevin Pearce and his arduous road to recovery. This project was helped along by a 2012 Mountainfilm Commitment Grant.

Gasland II – Director Josh Fox takes us all around the world to show what is happening to the landscapes that are being fracked for natural gas. And he introduces us to the people – many of them reluctant environmentalists – who are organizing and fighting against fracking.

God Loves Uganda – After introducing Music by Prudence to Mountainfilm in 2009, Director Roger Ross Williams returns with a different look at Africa – virulent anti-gay legislation in Uganda that is systemically supported by American Christian missionaries.

High and Hallowed – a World Premier. In May of 1963, a team of brave Americans assembled on Mt. Everest in an effort to be the first from the U.S. to stand atop the world’s tallest mountain. This is primarily the story of those first Americans on Everest 50 years ago, but it also incorporates a modern-day attempt on the West Ridge in 2012.

Life According to Sam – Sixteen year-old Sam Berns is older than his years because he has progeria, a rare disease that ages the heart rapidly and kills most by age 13. Despite the challenges, he doesn’t stop trying to live the life of a normal teenager and, in the process, achieves extraordinary success.

Lunarcy! – This film follows several characters who have gone completely bonkers for the moon: Alan Bean is one of the 12 men who have walked on the moon and is now creating moon art; Dennis Hope discovered a loophole in the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty that would seem to allow individual ownership of extra-terrestrial bodies; and, Christopher Carson aims to be the first citizen of a colonized moon. 

Pandora's Promise – A film that questions much of what we accept as fact about the negative side of nuclear as an alternative to fossil fuels. Surprising, given that the director’s first film was an anti-nuclear weapons documentary called Radio Bikini, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1988.

Rising from Ashes – In a year when cycling has suffered with the disgrace of Lance Armstrong, it’s a relief to see racers who recognize that it’s not all about the bike. This film relates the remarkable story of the Rwandan race team, cyclists who are pedaling away from the horror of genocide.

Uranium Drive-In – World Premier. Another Mountainfilm Commitment Grant recipient, Suzan Beraza follows up her Bag It triumph with this look at a nuclear conundrum just 50 miles from Telluride in the economically depressed West End of Montrose and San Miguel counties.

The complete program is available online at: mountainfilm.org.