Oregon Judge Recalls Animosity Between 2 Men : Courtroom Hostility Noted in Car-Bomb Case

The Oregon judge who presided at court hearings in a water-rights dispute that may have led to last week’s fatal car bombing in Laguna Hills said Monday that he remembered a lot of animosity between the two rival landowners.

In court, Ansel Young, 59, of Santa Ana and Hal W. Vincent, 59, of El Toro hardly spoke to one another and traded “stern looks,” Circuit Court Judge Loren L. Sawyer said Monday from Medford, Ore., in a telephone interview.

Young died Friday in the explosion, apparently while planting a bomb in a car owned by Vincent’s mother, according to police.

Monday, however, Young’s family urged the FBI to join the investigation and to help prove that he was not planting a bomb when he died in the explosion. FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said he was aware that such a request was made but that “to my knowledge, no decision has been made on whether the FBI has jurisdiction to enter this case.”

Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said that two Orange County sheriff’s investigators were in Medford Monday and that “our investigation is continuing.”

According to business associates and relatives, the feud between Young and Vincent, a retired Marine Corps major general, developed several years ago when the two men and a third business partner owned about 324 acres of rugged ranch property near the Oregon-California border.

The conflict began after Vincent and Young bought out the third partner and a dispute arose over boundaries for the newly divided property, sources said.

Vincent became angry last July after Young “plowed in” an irrigation ditch that cut off Vincent’s water supply to his ranch, the sources added. The ranches are next to one another, but Young’s property lies in Jackson County, Ore., and Vincent’s ranch is across the border in Siskiyou County, Calif.

One Sold Out

In October, Vincent sold his 100-acre SS Bar Ranch for about $625,000, contingent on winning irrigation rights to Cottonwood Creek, which is on Young’s land.

“But Young had gone in and blocked off a ditch that gave water to Vincent, and Vincent sought an injunction against Young,” Judge Sawyer said.

“It kind of reminded me of a lovers’ quarrel,” the judge said. “Here Young was a certified public accountant and had done accounting for Vincent in the past. It seemed that both families knew each other and apparently had socialized with each other and now they had this falling out. The hostility between the two came out in the testimony. There was a great deal of animosity.”

Earlier this month, the judge referred the dispute to the Oregon State Resource Department. Sawyer granted an injunction ordering Young not to divert water from Vincent’s land until a department decision is made.

Vincent is a consultant for Double O Enterprises in Laguna Hills, which sells National Football League accessories to the Marine Corps, but a spokesman there said he was out of the state Monday.

A memorial service for Young is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at Fairhaven Memorial Park Mortuary Cemetery & Cremation Service in Santa Ana.