Developer’s Eagle Lawsuit Ruffles Feathers

Re “Builder Sues Forest Service Workers Under RICO Act,” Dec. 20: So developer Irving Okovita has turned his attorneys loose to use the RICO Act on individual U.S. Forest Service workers, saying they are part of an environmentalist conspiracy because their reports have stopped his Marina Point development. And the U.S. Department of Justice has left the federal biologists, who were just trying to explain the bald eagle habitat to the courts, to fend for themselves rather than provide them counsel?

All I can say is welcome to the President Bush legacy. Having the RICO Act upended this way is not unbelievable. It’s the direction things are going to be heading as the White House paints the environment and its supporters as the green mafia. Why should the Justice Department intervene when the environmental protection laws’ days are numbered anyway?

Suvan Geer

Santa Ana

*

How embarrassing for Okovita to be the only developer in San Bernardino County that anyone ever said no to. If Forest Service scientists could accept the same kinds of donations that developers, builders and construction companies have made to the elected officials of the county, his project would be on its way to completion.

Ellen Zunino

Monrovia

*

The Dec. 21 editorial -- “Who’s Really in Cahoots?” -- missed perhaps the most salient issue involved in this attempted overkill by developer Okovita’s employment of the RICO statutes for the purpose of destroying a couple of dedicated -- but minimally empowered -- tree-hugging civil servants. The protection of the habitat of the bald eagle is at the nexus of this classic battle between conservationists and developers. Isn’t the bald eagle still our national bird? Doesn’t this magnificent yet highly endangered raptor still represent strength, freedom and harmony between man and the natural order of things? Will American children of the future have to learn of the bald eagle only through studying its image on our paper money? This truly a sad time for America.

Jon D. Elder

Monterey Park