Monday, January 27, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Dispute erupts in the desert

Neighbors, jerky seller scrap over business plans

Photos by John Gurzinski. Las Vegas businessman Luis Ramallo holds a stack of legal documents on a recent afternoon while standing outside his jerky stand in Crystal Springs. Ramallo claims harassment and intimidation from Lincoln County officials caused him to close the business in July 2001. He later filed a federal lawsuit that accuses several county agencies and employees of racial discrimination. Bruce and Pauli Shields comment on their legal battle with Luis Ramallo outside the couple's home in Crystal Luis Ramallo walks on a dirt road near Bruce and Pauli Shields' mailbox in Crystal Springs. Ramallo claims the Shieldses have been trespassing on his property by using the road and mailbox. Click image for an enlargement. REVIEW-JOURNAL

Luis Ramallo figured what better place than along the Extraterrestrial Highway to place a business called "Alien Fresh Jerky."

But his attempt at earning a little extra income has turned into a dispute with Lincoln County officials and residents of the tiny desert community of Crystal Springs.

"I'm a pain for them, but I was only there to sell beef jerky," Ramallo said during a recent interview at Santa Fe Electric, the Las Vegas business he opened in 1996.

Although Ramallo might have started out in Crystal Springs with the sole intent of selling jerky on a parcel of leased land, he later developed bigger plans.

Frustrated by conflicts with various officials, including health and fire inspectors, Ramallo closed his jerky stand in July 2001 and purchased 6.75 acres of vacant land about a half-mile away.

The electrical contractor envisioned using the land to open a gasoline station, restaurant and, of course, another jerky stand. No other businesses operate in the community of about a dozen residents, but Ramallo still hoped to obtain commercial zoning for his property.

But Ramallo's new project faced opposition from Lincoln County officials and all but one of his new neighbors in Crystal Springs, located 115 miles north of Las Vegas.

By November 2001, Ramallo had filed a lawsuit in Lincoln County District Court against Bruce and Pauli Shields, who live on adjacent property.

And last year Ramallo, a native of Argentina, filed a $20 million lawsuit in federal court that accuses various Lincoln County agencies of discriminating against him because he is Hispanic.

"He's alienated himself from everybody around here," Pauli Shields said recently outside her home.

She said she and her husband, both retired police officers, moved to the area about three years ago for its tranquility. They keep two horses on their property, which has a view of nearby Frenchy Lake.

Pauli Shields said the couple have opposed Ramallo's project because they don't want the noise and traffic it would bring, and she had strong words for Ramallo's claim of racial discrimination.

"Take your prejudice crap and shove it where the sun don't shine," she said. "It doesn't apply here."

She said other Hispanics live in the area and have encountered no problems.

Yet Ramallo blames Pauli Shields for posting a cardboard sign on his property that read "GREAT WALL OF OSAMA RAMALLO -- THE BEEF (ALIEN) JERKY GUY." The sign hung from a fence that Ramallo had erected to stop the Shieldses from using dirt roads on his property to access their own property.

Pauli Shields denied posting the sign but admitted she has twice removed fencing from Ramallo's property. The Shieldses claim the dirt roads on Ramallo's land are public roads and that he has no right to block access to them.

The fence issue forms the basis for Ramallo's lawsuit against the Shieldses, which accuses the couple of trespassing and malicious destruction of property, and of a subsequent countersuit filed by the Shieldses against Ramallo.

Although Pauli Shields takes no responsibility for the sign posted on Ramallo's property -- she said another neighbor gave Ramallo the "Osama" nickname -- she acknowledged that she initially thought Ramallo was Middle Eastern and feared he was a terrorist.

"Everything he's done has been suspicious," she said.

Las Vegas attorney Jeffrey Pitegoff, who represents most of the defendants named in Ramallo's federal lawsuit, did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.

Duane Davis, who has lived in Crystal Springs since 1978, said he doesn't think race has anything to do with the resistance Ramallo has faced in the community.

Residents in the area simply don't like outsiders, said Davis, the only neighbor who has not opposed Ramallo's efforts to obtain a zone change.

"I believe a fellow ought to do what he damn well pleases with his land," Davis said.

Ramallo, a married father of four, said he got the idea for opening a jerky stand from a friend who sells the dried meat and told him it was a good business. He hoped the jerky sales would bring in extra money during times when business was slow at Santa Fe Electric.

When looking for a location for his jerky stand, Ramallo remembered his visit a few years earlier to the Crystal Springs area.

He had noticed a vacant parcel of land at the intersection of U.S. Highway 93 and the former state Route 375, which was renamed the Extraterrestrial Highway in 1996 because of its proximity to the classified Groom Lake military installation and the mysterious Area 51.

Ramallo leased the property in February 2001. He then set up two tables at the site and began selling jerky there on weekends, raking in $1,000 a day.

Around the same time, he began negotiations to buy the Del Pueblo Truck Stop in nearby Alamo. The deal fell through, but Ramallo said he learned that there was money to be made in the area.

Ramallo replaced the tables at his jerky stand with a shed, from which he sold items such as the ever-popular alien-in-a-jar ($24.95) and UFO driver's licenses ($3.95).

According to Ramallo's federal lawsuit, he first encountered problems when signs advertising his business were stolen and Lincoln County sheriff's officers failed to conduct an investigation.

Ramallo later installed a video camera, which recorded two juveniles vandalizing his property, according to the lawsuit. The document claims officer Tod Palmer responded and took a report but later pressured Ramallo to withdraw the complaint, "indicating that the juveniles were 'good kids.' "

According to the lawsuit, the harassment and discrimination continued when representatives of the sheriff's office came to the business and demanded that Ramallo obtain a sheriff's card in order to continue operating. The lawsuit also accuses the sheriff's office of failing to investigate the theft and destruction of fencing on the property that Ramallo had purchased.

In addition, the document accuses Shelley Hartmann, planning coordinator for the Lincoln County planning and building departments, of refusing to provide Ramallo with public records and of giving preferential treatment to local residents applying for zone changes.

Hartmann declined to comment on Ramallo's allegations. Sgt. Kerry Lee of the Lincoln County sheriff's office said Palmer and Capt. Gary Davis, both defendants in the lawsuit, have been advised by their attorney not to comment on the case.

The businessman said he decided to close his jerky stand in July 2001 after Health Department officials began pressuring him to install a permanent building with restrooms.

"They didn't want my business there," Ramallo said. "That was obvious."

In July, Ramallo opened a jerky stand on leased property in Baker, Calif., where he averages $42,000 in sales a month.

But he has not given up his fight to develop the property he purchased in Crystal Springs. That land sits at the intersection of U.S. Highway 93 and state Route 318, near a sign that warns northbound drivers "Next gas 100 miles."

Although the nearest communities to the south -- Ash Springs and Alamo -- have a total of three gas stations, Ramallo said he hopes to intercept traffic coming from Ely before they get there.

"We are going to take business out of my competitors, and they don't like it," he said.

Ramallo said his competitors include the Shieldses, whose property is zoned for commercial use. The Shieldses, however, deny that they intend to open any businesses on their property.

Pauli Shields said she and her husband told Ramallo they planned to open a truck stop, but "that was totally to jerk his chain."

Ramallo said he wants his lawsuits to go to trial so he can "expose" those who have treated him unjustly.

"I was not down to Lincoln County to look for problems," he said. "I was only there to look for work."