Outside Jurors To Hear Ligertown Trial

A Bannock County magistrate has decided to get jurors from outside the area to decide the more than 100 misdemeanor charges lodged against the owners of the ramshackle Ligertown Game Farm.

Because of the heavy local publicity surrounding Ligertown and the September escape of 19 exotic cats that were eventually killed, Magistrate Mark Beebe announced on Monday that the six jurors for the trial of Dotti Martin and Robert Fieber would be picked in Cassia County and then transported to Pocatello to hear the evidence.

Prosecutors must decide this week whether to modify any of the 107 counts of cruelty to animals, public nuisance, possession of protected wildlife, drug and zoning violations against Martin and Fieber, who are scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 22.

Beebe, who rejected a defense bid to suppress evidence obtained from a search of Ligertown on grounds that the warrant was improper, has ordered prosecutors to be more specific in their allegations concerning animal cruelty and possession of protected wildlife.

After the escape of the cats from the poorly constructed cages on the game farm near Lava Hot Springs, the couple was essentially evicted from the house trailer because it failed to meet local safety codes.

Fieber started up the operation in southeastern Idaho in the 1980s after running into similar trouble with an exotic animal compound in Oregon.

Public Defender Kim Claussen objected to the magistrate’s decision, arguing that Cassia County was still too close to yield a jury untainted by all the news coverage of the escape and shooting of the exotic cats and its aftermath that included removal of several dozen other cats and over 40 wolf hybrids from Ligertown to facilities with what officials said were more acceptable conditions.

But Deputy Prosecutor Richard Diehl argued against any concession to publicity, maintaining that the court would have no problem selecting unbiased jurors from Bannock County’s 80,000 residents.