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Developer to pay state millions for blading prime Pinal County desert

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An Arizona developer and his company agreed to pay $7 million to the state for his role in the illegal blading of more than 200 acres of state trust land and the destruction of several Hohokam sites.

In the deal announced Thursday, George H. Johnson and Johnson International admit no guilt for those events nor other allegations, including that they caused the deaths of 21 bighorn sheep by putting domestic goats on the land he intended to develop into a new city in southern Pinal County.

Instead, the insurance carrier, which ultimately will write the check, decided it made financial sense to settle the lawsuit filed by the state nearly three years ago rather than fight it, said John DiCaro, attorney for Johnson and his companies.

Without the settlement, the state might have sought not just compensation for the losses but also millions of dollars in punitive damages, based on allegations Johnson's actions were deliberate. And DiCaro acknowledged it is an open question whether his clients' insurance would have paid those.

With similar agreements reached with two other defendants, including the company that did the blading for Johnson, the state ultimately will collect more than $12.1 million.

That amounts to the largest civil penalty ever collected in Arizona in an environmental case, said Attorney General Terry Goddard.

Of that amount, $150,000 will go to create a new Heritage Preservation Fund. This is the first time the Arizona State Museum, which is charged with protecting the state's archaeological sites, will actually have money to do that job, said Beth Grindell, its acting director.

The balance, after reimbursement of about $500,000 in costs of investigating and prosecuting the case, will be divided among other state departments affected by Johnson's actions, including Land, Environmental Quality and Game and Fish.

The settlement is "a strong message to anyone who would seek to despoil our heritage," said Goddard.

At the heart of the case is Johnson's decision in 2003 to blade about 2,000 acres of privately owned land to create what was to be the La Osa Ranch community north of Marana. The lawsuit says he did not get the proper permits.

But the state charged that Johnson also had another 270 acres of state trust land bladed near Ironwood Forest National Monument. Overall, more than 40,000 protected native plants were killed, the lawsuit said.

Grindell said the grading also destroyed several Hohokam sites dating back as far as A.D. 750. She said state law protects any archaeological sites on state and private lands if they contain human remains, as these did.

The lawsuit also accused Johnson of causing the deaths of 21 desert bighorn sheep and infections of another 49. That is based on the charge that Johnson allowed thousands of goats onto the property.

State law prohibits grazing goats within nine miles of desert sheep habitat because they can transfer diseases. In this case, the lawsuit said, the sheep were blinded, causing them to walk off cliffs to their deaths or become easy prey for mountain lions.

"He denies any responsibility for what happened," DiCaro said. The attorney specifically said Johnson and his companies spent "a tremendous amount of money" surveying the boundaries of the property but that the company hired to do the grading inadvertently trespassed on the trust lands.

Johnson subsequently sold the property without developing it.

As part of the deal, Johnson agreed to drop his own lawsuit against Goddard alleging that the attorney general libeled him and his companies in the 2005 news release announcing the lawsuit by saying they committed "wanton destruction of Arizona's heritage resources."

Goddard said the statements were protected because they were true. That, however, would have to be proved at trial. So Goddard had argued Johnson's lawsuit should be thrown out because he has absolute immunity. But the state Court of Appeals had disagreed, allowing the case to go forward. Thursday's agreement ends it.