## Facts

- Freed incorporated and served as a trustee of a trust that owned and operated a campground located in a national forest.
- The United States Forest Service discovered improvements and construction on national-forest land near the campground.
- The Forest Service sent Freed two letters informing him that the improvements and construction violated Forest Service regulations and were illegal.
- Over the next three years, the Forest Service observed unauthorized improvements and construction on two additional occasions, indicating the activity continued after the warning letters.
- An undercover Forest Service officer spoke with Freed about the violations and issued citations, but those citations were later dropped.
- Approximately two years later, the same officer observed that the improvements were still being maintained and served Freed with additional citations.
- The United States charged Freed with misdemeanor offenses for (1) using national-forest lands without a required special-use permit and (2) constructing and maintaining improvements on national-forest lands without authorization.
- After a bench trial before a magistrate judge, Freed was found guilty as a responsible corporate agent of the trust that owned the campground.
- The district court affirmed the convictions, and Freed appealed to the Eleventh Circuit.

## Issues

1. Whether the misdemeanor Forest Service offenses for unauthorized use of national-forest land and unauthorized construction/maintenance of improvements require proof of mens rea, or instead may be enforced as strict-liability regulatory offenses.
2. Whether Freed could be found guilty under a responsible-corporate-agent (vicarious-liability) theory based on his role and authority within the trust that owned and operated the campground.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed in an unpublished per curiam decision.
- The court upheld the lower courts’ conclusion that the charged regulatory misdemeanors could be treated as strict-liability offenses.
- The court upheld Freed’s convictions based on his responsibility and authority as a trustee/agent of the campground-owning trust, rejecting his challenge to liability imposed through responsible-corporate-agent principles.

## Legal Principles

- Certain regulatory misdemeanors involving protection and management of federal lands may be enforced without proof of a traditional culpable mental state when the regulatory scheme supports strict-liability treatment.
- Under the responsible corporate officer/agent doctrine, an individual with authority and responsibility within an entity may be held criminally liable for regulatory violations connected to the entity’s operations when the individual had the power to prevent or correct the violations but failed to do so.
- Repeated notice from regulators about ongoing violations, combined with continued maintenance of unauthorized conditions, supports finding liability for a responsible agent even if the agent did not personally perform every physical act.

## Conclusion

United States v. Freed affirmed misdemeanor convictions for using national-forest land without a special-use permit and for constructing and maintaining unauthorized improvements on national-forest land, holding that the Forest Service offenses could be enforced as strict-liability regulatory crimes and that Freed could be convicted as a responsible corporate agent of the trust operating the campground.


United States v. Freed, 189 Fed. Appx. 888, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 17716