Ligertown Plea Bargain In The Works

Bannock County prosecutors are negotiating a plea agreement that would require the owners of the ramshackle Ligertown Game Farm to leave the Lava Hot Springs area for good.

County Commission Chairman Tom Katsilometes told a Lions Club meeting Tuesday night that the proposed deal also would require Robert Fieber and Dotti Martin to plead guilty to three misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals and to forfeit all their property to the county.

Prosecutor Richard Diehl and Bannock County Public Defender Kim Claussen have been discussing “some kind of offer with the county getting everything they’ve got, and they leave the area forever,” Katsilometes said. “Short of that, we intend to send them to jail.”

The couple would serve no jail time if they accept the offer. But if they reject it, the county intends to pursue all 107 misdemeanor charges against them, the commissioner said.

Nineteen full-grown African lions were killed after some escaped from Ligertown on Sept. 20. Twenty-four surviving lions and three crossbred ligers later were shipped to an animal reserve in California.

Katsilometes said selling off the couple’s property - including the Ligertown site outside Lava Hot Springs and 45 wolf hybrids being held near Roberts - could help cover Bannock County’s costs in the case.

“It would save us a lot of money and we would get what we want by getting the land up there cleaned up,” he said in an interview Wednesday.