Jury acquits Al Unser Sr. on misdemeanor charges

As revered as the Unser family is here in ABQ, they do have a history of making their own rules, so to speak, which has not always comported with the law.

In this case, I think the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office took matters a bit too far.

The 67-year-old Unser was arrested Aug. 9 near his home after authorities cordoned off a road named after the famous racing family. The roadblock, close to the Unser family's property, was part of a SWAT situation. Officers were trying to arrest a man who led them on a high-speed chase and fired shots at police.

Prosecutors alleged Unser ignored officers' orders to leave the area and instead exited his vehicle "with the purpose of giving officers a piece of his mind."

Charlie Daniels, Unser's attorney, said the only reason Unser was arrested was because he objected "to the abusive way he was being treated by police."

sports.yahoo.com...

Bobby ran afoul of the law a few years back in CO.

When three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser got lost for two days while snowmobiling illegally in Colorado's South San Juan Wilderness last December, he got more than a citation from the U.S. Forest Service. Unser became the latest poster child of anti-environmental "wise-use" groups infuriated with the Wilderness Act of 1964, a law that has the audacity to suggest that there are some public lands where natural processes, not human uses, should take precedence.

Two months after his appeal to patriotism, Unser was convicted in federal court for his snowmobile foray. The judge was not swayed by his claim that he accidentally crossed into the wilderness area in South San Juan. Among the evidence: in an encounter with a ranger in 1993, Unser reportedly stated that he knew where the wilderness boundaries were, and that if he entered the area "nobody would be able to catch him."

www.sierraclub.org...

Oh well. You don't typically get to be championship racers by being meek.

Al Unser's brother Bobby recently had the charges against him in the above incident dropped.

Misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing an officer have been dropped against three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, who was arrested along with his brother during a fracas at a roadblock in August.

A joint statement issued by Unser's attorneys and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department said the charges were dismissed because the incident had been "a mutual misunderstanding" with sheriff's deputies.


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