Defense Asks That Ligertown Trial Be Moved Attorneys Say There Has Been Too Much Publicity On Couple

Defense attorneys say there’s been too much publicity for Robert Fieber and Dotti Martin to get a fair trial on charges they mistreated lions and other wild animals at their Ligertown center at Lava Hot Springs.

After court arguments this week, 6th District Magistrate Mark Beebe took under advisement a defense motion to move the scheduled Jan. 22 trial for Fieber and Martin.

The couple was charged after 19 of their African lions escaped from poorly constructed cages on Sept. 20 and were killed by law enforcement officers. They also had 45 wolf hybrids and at least 27 other lions, all of which have been removed.

They each face 107 misdemeanor charges including cruelty to animals, creating a public nuisance, possessing protected wildlife, zoning violations, and possessing marijuana, drug paraphernalia and a prescription drug.

Public defender Kim Claussen said it’s impossible for the pair to get a fair trial in the Pocatello area.

“The defendants have a right to have a fair trial and (to have) unprejudiced jurors listen to the facts of their case,” Claussen said. He said news reports had inflammatory statements about Ligertown, using words like “filth” and “squalor.”

Deputy Prosecutor Richard Diehl argued that Bannock County has 80,000 residents, a large enough pool of people to find “six fair-minded, impartial jurors.”

He said up to 50 witnesses, many of them working in Bannock County, could be called to testify and it would be inconvenient and expensive to move the trial.

Claussen also wants to throw out as evidence material that sheriff’s deputies took from the couple’s mobile home, arguing the search warrant used to search the home was vague.

The affidavits, he said, didn’t show Fieber and Martin had committed a crime and gave no sound reason to enter their mobile home.

Diehl said having large carnivorous animals at large created a public nuisance, which is a criminal activity.

Diehl also said a legal description of Ligertown on the affidavit allowed deputies to search the mobile home. Ownership records had to be found in the mobile home so deputies would know how many animals were loose, he said.

Diehl also wants jurors to see Ligertown, a mobile home surrounded by a ramshackle complex of cages. “It would give them a complete picture and help them understand the evidence,” Diehl said.

Claussen said that would be irrelevant and prejudice jurors. “Maybe I should look at the place,” Beebe said.

Ligertown has been cordoned off, and Fieber and Martin no longer live there because their mobile home is substandard, according to county report.

Beebe ordered Diehl to amend the complaint against Fieber and Martin to specifically state how the couple was cruel to animals.

The judge also approved Claussen’s motion for Bannock County to pay reasonable costs of defending Martin and Fieber.

The court will pay for copies of scripts from television stations, videotapes and copies of pictures from 36 rolls of film.