New Details Emerge in the Ranch-Stalking Horror Story [Updated]
Two months ago, rancher Courtney Mallery and his wife Nicole were arrested for allegedly stalking their white neighbors—despite that fact that they claim their neighbors were the ones doing the stalking (and vandalizing... and livestock killing). According to The Gazette, the couple rallied thousands of supporters to take on the people harassing them and the sheriff who might be behind the mess.
After two years of reporting allegations of harassment and livestock mutilation, the Colorado couple said they were threatened to never contact the police again or they would be handcuffed. They took their chances, and were arrested on felony warrants in December after one of the accused neighbors named the Mallerys in a stalking complaint.
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Now check this out: the lady who reported them to the police, Teresa Clark, had a restraining order filed against her by the Mallerys and was arrested the following year for violating the order. Somehow, Clark’s stalking allegations are what held weight and the El Paso District and County Magistrate judge considered the couple “a risk to the community.”
If true, Clark just took Karen to a whole new level.
The couple have since bonded out and have been trying to decide how to move forward while the courts and Sheriff’s Office allegedly play devil’s advocate.
Read more from The Gazette:
“(The Sheriff’s Office) is supposed to protect and serve, and that’s not happening for me,” Nicole Mallery said. “It’s like our lives don’t matter, and that’s not OK.”
Sheriff Joe Roybal on Tuesday proposed a meeting with Nicole and Courtney Mallery and other members of the Yoder community. But the couple questioned the sincerity of the request and expressed reluctance to attend a town hall-style meeting.
“They want to put us in a room, like we’re sheep amongst wolves, for people to attack us,” Nicole Mallery said. “That won’t work.”
Much of the public anger has been directed at Deputy Emory Gerhart of the county’s Rural Enforcement and Outreach Unit. In the online article, the Mallerys accused Gerhart of being complicit in the alleged harassment. Nicole Mallery on Wednesday implied that the deputy plays favorites, referring to Gerhart as Clark’s “personal policeman.”
A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office denied the claim the Mallerys’ concerns went ignored. “[The Mallerys] claim the Sheriff’s Office has done nothing, has not responded to their calls for service. That’s just not true,” said Lt. Deborah Mynatt to The Gazette.
I guess we’ll see what’s really up after the evidence goes public. The report says the Sheriff’s Office open records department is working on releasing documents related to the incident including bodycam footage from officers who responded to the calls from the Mallerys’ ranch.
In the meantime, the couple created a change.org petition calling for the firing of Deputy Gerhart that to date has gathered more than 9,000 signatures. In the petition, the two are also calling for an independent investigation by the Colorado Attorney General into the local police who they claim took part in the “terrorism” they’ve been experiencing.
Over 100 Reports of Livestock Slayings and Violent Threats
The Mallerys recently repaired their ranch following some flood damage, only for their white neighbors to terrorize both them and their livestock. According to 9News, however, their complaints about the stalking and harassment actually backfired on them.
The two own the Freedom Acres Ranch, a 1,000-acre plot of land with a range of goats, pigs, chickens and every good thing a farm should have. Then, in 2020, they began waking up to beheaded, butchered and missing animals. Graphic images shared with Ark Republic showed baby goats that were allegedly poisoned and a cow with its insides spilling on the ground.
The Mallerys claim their white neighbors are to blame for these heinous acts, which are also possibly racially motivated. And if that’s the case, their neighbors didn’t stop at the animals: they also allegedly tried to kill and butcher the couple as well.
Read more from Ark Republic:
Frequently, they must replace surveillance equipment after they see strangers pointing a device towards their cameras which ends up jamming them and taking out the signal. Plus, their electricity lines have been cut and neighbors have stolen well water by running an illegal line from their source.
One day, Courtney was chased by a white man when repairing a portion of his fence. The aggressor, who was in a car, gunned for Courtney who made it to his vehicle in just enough time to dash away in a hellish pursuit. Once he made it to the end of his property, the man steered the other way.
One evening, Nicole was followed by a white woman who almost ran her car off the road then put on high beams and pulled out what looked like a gun. The confrontation was exceptionally unnerving because Nicole was returning from a church function with her visiting nieces and nephew.
Mr. Mallery told Ark Republic this is all a ploy to take his land, which El Paso County Sheriff Emory Gerhart allegedly condoned. The Mallerys say he’d been notified of the events happening at the ranch but hadn’t made a single police report. After two years and 19 complaints, six restraining orders and 170 calls, the sheriff threatened to arrest the couple if they dialed 911 again, Nicole said.
Unfortunately, he kept his promise. Now, the NAACP is stepping in.
“I would really hope that the El Paso County Sheriff’s department and several others in rural areas understand that we’re taking this very seriously,” said Portia Prescott, president of the Rocky Mountain NAACP via 9News. “It needs to be taken a lot more seriously than they have taken it in the past,” Prescott said.
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