By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A plea was settled on a case involving trees on about
five acres of Utah school trust land which were illegally
taken.
Val Rappleye, 53, of West Jordan, entered a plea deal
with prosecutors Tuesday in 4th District Court in Juab
County.
Rappleye pleaded guilty in abeyance to charges of
criminal mischief, a second-degree felony; theft, a
second-degree felony; and trespassing on trust lands, a
class B misdemeanor.
The charges will be dismissed in three years,
according to the plea, if Rappleye pays restitution and
obeys the conditions of another felony conviction from Cache
County.
"If he does not meet the conditions of the plea in
abeyance, he could be sentenced," Juab County Attorney Jared
Eldridge said.
Rappleye received a contract to log on private
property in the mountains near the Juab-Sanpete county
line.
Sometime between 1999-2002, trees from nearby land
owned by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration were logged by "high-grading."
"High-grading is a forestry practice different from
clear-cutting because the loggers select the largest trees
and leave the rest," Eldridge said.
"It just made a mess. It cost about $23,000 in
environmental damage," he said.
The trees were worth more than $12,000.
"The logs were taken to a sawmill and Rappleye made a
profit from the sale of them," Eldridge said.
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