The Palm Beach Post (Florida) ran a front page story on Sunday, November 13, 1994 entitled "Family still fights for good name after feds seized ranch 6 years ago."

The story, written by Susannah A. Nesmith, features Donald Jones, 36, his sister Toni Wiersma, 40, and their 75-year-old mother Mildred Jones whose 4,000 acre family ranch was seized by then- acting U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen in September 1988. The working ranch, valued at $6 million, is located on Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation in Glades County, near Lake Okeechobee.
 

The seizure--touted by Lehtinen as being the "largest federal property seizure in U.S. history"--was precipitated by the crash of a twin-engine Piper Navajo in February 1986. The badly-burned crash victims were never positively identified and no drugs were found in the wreckage. Still, law enforcement authorities concluded that the plane was carrying drugs because metal grommets were found in the plane's remains. According to court documents, the grommets were similar to those used in the duffel bags drug dealer typically pack their drugs in. The grommets were later lost by the Glades County Sheriff's Office. Nobody in the Jones family was charged with drug dealing, nor were any of the employees on the ranch.
 

The plane did not crash on the Jones ranch. It crashed about a mile from the ranch's western border. The ranch was seized because of the government's claim that the alleged drug plane was headed to the ranch before it crashed.
 

The government made the seizure after snitch Lazaro Fernandez, who was caught unloading drugs off a different plane, made a deal with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to stay out of jail. Fernandez fingered 10 other men and gave the government the "probable cause" it needed to seize the family ranch.
 

Fernandez's story changed repeatedly from 1988 to 1993. At first he said that he had never been to the Jones ranch. Later, he said that he did go to the ranch and saw a man named Richard I. Platt in a pickup truck near the alleged airstrip. By 1993, Fernandez stated that the man in the truck was not Platt, but Bill Wiersma, Toni Wiersma's husband. Fernandez also was caught lying under oath in a related criminal case in 1987.
 

In May 1994, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler returned the ranch to the Jones family. Hoeveler wrote "It is of interest to note that, unlike the majority of the populace, Mr. Fernandez's memory seemed to improve rather than fade away with the passage of time, so that, remarkably, in 1993, he did what he couldn't do in 1988 or earlier: He identified Bill Wiersma."
 

Despite the return of their ranch, family members still don't think they received justice. Besides the $700,000 in legal fees they've expended, the family members say that the drug allegations have hurt the family's reputation. "I didn't step foot out of the house for three weeks," Mildred Jones said. "It was so embarrassing. I had never been in such a predicament."
 

The family has filed a slander suit against Lehtinen. They claim that Lehtinen, in a press conference held the day after the seizure implied that they were drug dealers. At the press conference, Lehtinen is reported to have said: "These properties are assets of drug dealers. This is a major effort to take the war on drugs to the drug smuggler's pockets." The slander suit was dismissed by Judge James C. Paine due to Lehtinen's prosecutorial immunity. The family is appealing the dismissal.
 

Lehtinen's nomination for permanent U.S. Attorney was refused by the Senate in 1991. Lehtinen resigned from office in 1992.
 

Donald Jones had this to say: "They say we're in a war, and in a war there's innocent victims. I guess we're the innocent victims."

Note: Susannah Nesmith can be contacted at: The Palm Beach Post, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405, telephone 407/747-1888.
 

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