{"id":26387,"date":"2024-07-30T22:44:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T04:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/attempted-theft-charges-dropped-in-silverton-snowcat-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:38:45","slug":"attempted-theft-charges-dropped-in-silverton-snowcat-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/attempted-theft-charges-dropped-in-silverton-snowcat-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempted theft charges dropped in Silverton snowcat case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Video
Video surveillance footage from Jan. 20 captured Justin Swartz and Craig Miller moving a snowcat on the property of the Aerie Lodge. The two are now charged with felony attempted theft in the fourth degree. (Courtesy of the Aerie Lodge via The Silverton Standard & the Miner)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Felony attempted theft charges against two Silverton men accused of trying to steal a snowcat<\/a> have been dropped for lack of evidence, the men were told by their lawyers.<\/p>\n

San Juan County Court Judge Anthony Edwards confirmed he had signed an order to dismiss the case, however the order and preceding motion were not available to the public.<\/p>\n

The previously scheduled jury trial of the men has been removed from the court docket.<\/p>\n

Justin Swartz, 50, and Craig Miller, 43, were arrested in February after they moved the $140,000 vehicle down the driveway of a property located on County Road 110, about 4 miles north of town, on Jan 20.<\/p>\n

The property is where the Aerie Lodge, co-owned by Nick Croce, is under construction. Swartz maintains he had written permission to use the vehicle because his construction company, where Miller works, was considering taking over the job.<\/p>\n

After Croce, who was out of town, noticed the vehicle was missing using security camera footage, he contacted law enforcement. A friend of Croce\u2019s located the vehicle parked lower down the driveway obscured by trees.<\/p>\n

Croce suspected the men had hidden it from view with the intent of returning later and stealing the vehicle. Swartz and Miller maintain they parked the snowcat lower down so they could return to the property and drive it up, rather than trekking through deep snow.<\/p>\n

Swartz previously said it was \u201cabsolutely absurd\u201d to think that he would try to steal the bright red snowcat, which would entail transporting it through downtown Silverton.<\/p>\n

In a written message to The Durango Herald, <\/em>San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad said the District Attorney\u2019s Office concluded there was not sufficient evidence to show Swartz\u2019s and Miller\u2019s intent to \u201cpermanently deprive\u201d Croce of the snowcat. Future charges may be possible, he said.<\/p>\n

Swartz was, at the time, a candidate in the Silverton mayoral race. He came in third of three candidates, garnering five votes, or 1.6% of the ballots. He continues to allege that the charges and coverage in the Silverton Standard & Miner<\/em> \u2013 which was based off the arrest affidavits written by the arresting officer \u2013 were intended to sway the election.<\/p>\n

In the months since, Swartz said the loss of business that stemmed from the event meant he could not pay rent and got evicted.<\/p>\n

Miller, the foreman at Swartz\u2019s company, said the loss in income and slowing in business forced him to leave Silverton. He now lives in Dolores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just glad it\u2019s over with,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

faced felony charges in connection with moving machinery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,28,327,1164],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-headlines","tag-silverton","tag-snow"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79339,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26387\/revisions\/79339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26387"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}