From Deseret News archives:
Beekeeper sues official, counties in rights battle
Darren Cox sued Cache and Box Elder counties, as well as county bee inspector Martin James, alleging that the two governments and James have violated several of Cox's constitutional rights and certain Utah laws.
Cox contends the two counties were wrong to appoint James as their joint bee inspector since James also works as a commercial beekeeper in direct competition with Cox.
Cox says this is an unfair and illegal conflict of interest.
The lawsuit asks that James be booted from the job, and Cox wants financial damages decided at trial.
"We deny the allegations," said Cache County Attorney George Daines. "We talked to him six, seven, eight months ago, talked with him repeatedly, and we deny the allegations."
Attorneys for the Box Elder County Attorney's Office were unavailable for comment at press time.
The bee inspector's job lets him find out the secret locations of all bee apiaries to inspect and regulate them. If a beekeeper objects, the inspector can get a warrant.
When the counties gave James a list of his apiary locations, as Cox alleges, this hurt the value of his techniques and unfairly and illegally tipped James off about Cox's successful methods of raising bees, the lawsuit states.
Cox said he told James not to check his apiaries, but James did so anyhow without a warrant, which Cox terms a violation of his constitutional protection against illegal searches.
Cox could pay someone else to do inspections, the lawsuit notes, but that is not required of other beekeepers, which Cox said is unfair.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com
Recent comments
I too have to go along with "Don't Get it". I wonder why Mr. Cox...
Ignernt | Nov. 11, 2008 at 2:22 p.m.
this story seems like a pretty onesided story on Mr. Cox's side did...
unknown | Nov. 7, 2008 at 8:35 a.m.
What I don't get from reading all this is if Mr. Cox applied for the...
Don't Get It | Nov. 5, 2008 at 4:58 p.m.
- Germany celebrates Wall falling 3:53 p.m.
- Iraq electoral law passes 3:39 p.m.
- Memorial at site of Cleveland killings 3:35 p.m.
- Chavez to troops: Prepare for war 3:34 p.m.
- Suspect in Vail shooting faces charge 3:31 p.m.
- TCU moves into 4th place in BCS 3:16 p.m.
- Alcohol suspected in Roy shooting 2:36 p.m.
- Chaplain seeks prayers for meaning 2:36 p.m.
- La. Gov. declares state of emergency 2:34 p.m.
- 'SuperFreakonomics' just as fun 1:42 p.m.
- Gay advocates trek to LDS office
213 - Dirk does dirty work in Dallas
190 - House passes health care bill
186 - Lobo suspended
173 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
147 - Speed has never been BYU's game
136 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
112 - RSL rallies to advance
103 - Thousands protest health bill
102 - Provo company innovating engines
98
Why do so many people live so close to refineries in Utah and elsewhere?
NASA's Stardust probe continues to bring new knowledge about the nature...
I guess your paper likes that 1/2 wit moore, UH? :(
Utes will get beat by TCU worse than BYU did. You can take that to the bank....
Same record as USU had last year at this time. Look, ags, it isn't the...
Utah's defense isn't as good as last year and it's offense is certainly not...
Could we have a requirment before making a post? Will everyone please look...
AK is pretty cool!! He needs to get a hair cut. He is on of my favorite utah...
Sorry Ute fans. It's not going to happen against TCU this year. You were...
Maybe Utah should "play dead" and get $375,000 instead of a paltry $125,000...
Matheson must go, so he didn't vote for this awful bill...he really wanted...
Honk! Honk! Honk! Get a clue

