Judge fines Joshua Pilgrim $1000

WSEN staff

In a nonjury trial, federal Magistrate Harry Branson found Joshua Pilgrim, 23, guilty of the misdemeanor crime of doing business on federal land without a permit.

According to testimony in the twoday trial, Joshua agreed to take NPS undercover agent Stephen Rooker on a trip up the Bonanza Mine trail in August. Joshua’s attorney, Carl Bauman, argued that the ranger entrapped Joshua, insisting that they go to the mine.

The misdemeanor charge carried a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. The prosecution dropped the prison sentence element prior to the hearing to avoid a jury trial.

Bauman asked the judge to set the sentence at $200, the amount Rooker paid for the trip. Chandra Postma, staff attorney for the U.S.

Department of the Interior’s solicitor’s office, asked for a minimum $3,000 fine. She called his conduct “brazen.” Judge Branson set the amount at $1,000. “I believe this amount of money is well within the defendant’s resources to pay,” Branson said. He gave Joshua a year and a day to pay the fine.

Hunter Sharp, chief ranger and assistant superintendent for WrangellSt. Elias, testified that he planned the operation and asked Rooker to work undercover.

Rooker testified that he rode with Joshua and 10yearold Noah Hale on horse back from Kennicott up the steep switchback trail to Bonanza Mine, took pictures at the top with a digital camera and ate lunch with them.

Rooker also testified that he arranged another trip with the Pilgrim family for six “relatives,” putting down a deposit of $65 for the trip that was priced at $1,200. At the same time, apparently to add “reality” to the sting operation, Rooker asked the Pilgrims to book lodging for two nights at McCarthy B&B, and a glacier hike with Kennicott Wilderness Guides. When it turned out the relatives were fictitious, NPS was forced to pay for the bogus lodging arrangements.

Defense attorney Carl Bauman argued that the trail is a state right- of-way. He said there was no evidence that Hale did business at the mine, which is on federal land, because they didn’t ride horses there and Rooker didn’t get a tour of the mine. Alaska Department of Natural Resources’s Sam Means testified that the trail to Bonanza was indeed an RS 2477 State of Alaska public highway.

Joshua said after the hearing that he still feels innocent and believes he was entrapped by the Park Service. The National Park Service “can’t find me guilty of anything,” he said. “They’ve got to create a situation to where I am guilty.”

Joshua said his family has been “afflicted” by the dispute with the National Park Service. “Financially, it’s very difficult because our summer has been swallowed up in park issues,” he told the judge.

Latest word as we go to press is that Joshua will appeal the verdict.