Although Jack Ward Thomas testified against him in
his Great Falls, Mont., trial, former forest supervisor Ernie Nunn
believes the Forest Service chief was also partially responsible
for his acquittal. “I think he signaled the judge that those were
not significant charges.”
The signal came twice.
First, as the top appeals officer within the Forest Service, Thomas
dropped several of the charges initially brought against Nunn.
“Jack Ward Thomas said some of the charges brought against me
hadn’t warranted the harsh actions that had been taken. But he did
uphold the $1,500 fox-trotter charge,” Nunn said. Nunn went to
trial on that charge.
The second signal came
during the trial in Great Falls. “Thomas did testify against me,
but he made some statements that helped me out.”
Why didn’t Thomas simply drop all the charges
against Nunn? In a telephone interview, Nunn said that Thomas has
not yet bent the Forest Service bureaucracy to his will. “The new
leadership can’t make it happen. They can’t push the changes
through the system. I think Jack Ward Thomas can be a very good
chief if some of his people would let him.”
Nunn
guessed that his acquittal may lead to some changes. “Now the chief
has got to make some decisions.” Nunn said he understands that a
large number of cases – the result of internal investigations – are
awaiting action by the chief.
And more are coming
through the pipeline. Nunn said that since his acquittal, he has
received numerous telephone calls from agency employees. People
under pressure in the agency, he said, are searching for ways to
fight disciplinary action being taken against them.
Typically, Nunn said, agency employees are
threatened with “rinky-dink” violations because they’ve reduced
timber cuts or tried to improve grazing practices.
Nunn said those who anger the commodity
industries are informally offered transfers – -There’s never
anything in writing’ – or threatened with loss of their jobs. “Some
of these folks call me to find out how to figure out the appeals
process and how to resist transfers. They’re scared; they’re
afraid. I can share that with them because I went through it.”
In every case, Nunn said, the Forest Service can
find something to use. “You can dig up a violation on any ranger or
supervisor. If you want to get rid of an employee, I can show you
how to do it.”
* Ed
Marston
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline As witness for prosecution, chief aids defense.
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