This one takes the cake for taking sides. Holy smokes, I've never seen this program so blatantly take one side so much is in this episode. They always play favorites and it's not hard to figure out but in this one, well, they might as well have been the attorney for the defendant. In 98 percent of this show, they openly root for Rob Nuckols calling him my his first name and almost cursing the opposition: the United States Forest Service.
Despite the unprofessional reporting, it was still an interesting story and - yes, you couldn't help but root for Mr. Nuckols yourself, even if you only did hear one side of the story. It was obvious this man was going to be "railroaded" by "the Feds" just to get his land added to the Nezpace National Forest. You see, out in that part of the country, people are pretty much loners and want to stay that way.....and they don't care for government interference, especially if they aren't bothering anyone. One can hardly blame them.
The property here right outside Riggins, Idaho, is spectacular. Nuckols didn't have any huge house but the views and setting were about as pretty as you'd ever imagine, with the Salmon River close by and mountains surrounding the house. In a nutshell, the government wanted that property because they had the surrounding areas, but Nuckols wouldn't sell so they tried to make him a drug dealer, arrest him and then grab the land.
Personally, the government had no case against this guy, trying to set him up with a phony entrapment ploy. That is obvious, isn't it? The woman who pulled the fake "drug deal" admitted as much on the stand! Rob made no money on the deal. He was just buying the grass for a friend. It turns out "the Feds" threatened her to get the man to make the deal or they would take away her kids, as she was in jail at the time.
Just to present another view, which City Confidential did not do, here is a A&E Channel website post, regarding the story: "My wife and I watched the above program concerning the "glorifying" of Mr. Rob Nuckols. We were shocked at the story, as it did not tell the whole story about Mr. Nuckols life. I lived in the area at the time Mr. Nuckols was residing in a cabin in the Big Canyon of the Snake River within the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. I remember Mr. Nuckols was suspect, at the time, in some deaths that occurred in the area & suspected of dealing in drugs. He was relocated, but did not own any land, just living in a cabin there by permission of the landowner, who wound up selling the land to the government, while Mr. Nuckols was living there.
"I knew Agent Mike Merkley, he was portrayed as a overzealous Federal Agent, whose lifelong goal was to "nail" Mr. Nuckols, which was not true! It appears to me, that whomever did this episode of "City Confidential", did so with an agenda of making the state & federal agents look bad. It reminds me of how the media glorified a man, by the name of Claude Dallas, who shot and killed two Idaho Fish & Game Officers back during that era." This was an interesting nonviolent crime story but it would have super had it had more objective coverage by the CC writers, even if it does look like Mr. Nuckols was set up.
Despite the unprofessional reporting, it was still an interesting story and - yes, you couldn't help but root for Mr. Nuckols yourself, even if you only did hear one side of the story. It was obvious this man was going to be "railroaded" by "the Feds" just to get his land added to the Nezpace National Forest. You see, out in that part of the country, people are pretty much loners and want to stay that way.....and they don't care for government interference, especially if they aren't bothering anyone. One can hardly blame them.
The property here right outside Riggins, Idaho, is spectacular. Nuckols didn't have any huge house but the views and setting were about as pretty as you'd ever imagine, with the Salmon River close by and mountains surrounding the house. In a nutshell, the government wanted that property because they had the surrounding areas, but Nuckols wouldn't sell so they tried to make him a drug dealer, arrest him and then grab the land.
Personally, the government had no case against this guy, trying to set him up with a phony entrapment ploy. That is obvious, isn't it? The woman who pulled the fake "drug deal" admitted as much on the stand! Rob made no money on the deal. He was just buying the grass for a friend. It turns out "the Feds" threatened her to get the man to make the deal or they would take away her kids, as she was in jail at the time.
Just to present another view, which City Confidential did not do, here is a A&E Channel website post, regarding the story: "My wife and I watched the above program concerning the "glorifying" of Mr. Rob Nuckols. We were shocked at the story, as it did not tell the whole story about Mr. Nuckols life. I lived in the area at the time Mr. Nuckols was residing in a cabin in the Big Canyon of the Snake River within the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. I remember Mr. Nuckols was suspect, at the time, in some deaths that occurred in the area & suspected of dealing in drugs. He was relocated, but did not own any land, just living in a cabin there by permission of the landowner, who wound up selling the land to the government, while Mr. Nuckols was living there.
"I knew Agent Mike Merkley, he was portrayed as a overzealous Federal Agent, whose lifelong goal was to "nail" Mr. Nuckols, which was not true! It appears to me, that whomever did this episode of "City Confidential", did so with an agenda of making the state & federal agents look bad. It reminds me of how the media glorified a man, by the name of Claude Dallas, who shot and killed two Idaho Fish & Game Officers back during that era." This was an interesting nonviolent crime story but it would have super had it had more objective coverage by the CC writers, even if it does look like Mr. Nuckols was set up.