Reese family files settlement agreement with government on seized property :: 04/20/2015

Attempting to bring an end to an ordeal that began in 2011, former gun dealers Rick and Terri Reese filed a settlement agreement with the U.S. government Friday in the District Court of the United States for the District of New Mexico. In addition to over $11,000 and property, the government, if it adheres to arbitration negotiations between attorneys, will be keeping “approximately 1,191 firearms” and “approximately 4,761 ammunition magazines.”

The family will get to keep real property including 85 acres with structures in Deming, gold and silver coins, four vehicles and 17 gun safes. A specific condition that “items being released to Claimants shall be in substantially the same condition they were in when they were seized” is the result of previously seized vehicles being returned with damage and missing parts, Rick Reese tells Examiner. Additionally, seized ammunition and powder “not specifically forfeited” will be sold to the public by a designated Federal Firearms Licensee with proceeds less dealer costs going to the Reeses.

Arrested for allegedly knowingly selling guns to cartel members while operating a New Mexico gun store, all Reese family members were found not guilty on the most serious charges of conspiracy. Additionally and significantly, money laundering charges against them were dismissed. Husband Rick, wife Terri and son Ryin were each convicted on lesser charges of making false statements on forms, basically under the presumption that they should have known federal agents were lying. Son Remington was cleared of all charges.

That conviction became subject to challenge as irregularities in the government’s case emerged, including over the credibility of testimony against the Reeses. Initially granted a new trial by the District Court based on the prosecution withholding evidence from the defense about a criminal investigation of one of the prosecution’s law enforcement witnesses, the U.S. Appeals Court overturned that decision.

In spite of the prosecutor asking for five years, Judge Robert C. Brack ruled last November that the family, with no prior criminal record, did not pose a threat and that probation was appropriate. They were sentenced to time served, probation and fines, along with random searches and drug testing, an alcohol prohibition, and prohibition from possessing firearms.

In addition to the division of property reached in the settlement, the Reeses also agreed to give up claims against the government. A perhaps debatable point of the agreement is the concession on the part of a family with seized assets -- trying to defend itself against a government with unlimited resources -- “that neither the United States nor Claimants Rick Reese and Terri Reese substantially prevailed in this litigation.”

“Terri and I made a decision to put this deal together [to] attempt to reconstruct our family's lives,” Rick Reese noted, explaining to this column why a settlement attempt could spell the end of four years of torment and uncertainty wherein the family has received insufficient outside assistance to press on. Barring surprises from the government reneging on agreements to bring the matter to closure, that reconstruction may be forthcoming.