OK, so Tim DeChristopher can't argue at his newly scheduled March trial that he monkey-wrenched an oil and gas lease auction to save the world from global warming -- the judge won't let him -- but he may have another possible defense: selective prosecution.

Turns out, dozens of other bidders in the past five years have failed to make good on their bids for federal drilling leases.

So why single out DeChristopher with two felony charges his attorneys ask.

The reason, prosecutors suggest, is that all but two of those failed bids (including DeChristopher's) were made in good faith.

The case moved closer to a courtroom showdown Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Dee Benson setting a three-day jury trial starting March 15 for the 28-year-old University of Utah economics major, who bid on and won 14 lease parcels near national parks last December.

DeChristopher said he had no intention of paying the $1.8 million and was using civil disobedience to scuttle an illegal auction. He has not disputed that he placed the bogus bids, but had hoped to argue his actions were justified to stave off climate change. But Benson sided with prosecutors last month in barring that line of defense.

Benson set the March trial Tuesday during a closed-door conference in the judge's chambers.

Afterward, defense attorney Pat Shea, who oversaw the Bureau of Land Management during the Clinton administration, said that he and co-counsel Ron Yengich did not plan to appeal Benson's ruling on the environmental defense at this time, but did leave open the possibility for such an appeal later.

He vowed that DeChristopher's team would mount a vigorous defense.

"We've lost our arms," Shea said of Benson's earlier ruling, "but we've still got our legs."

For instance, the defense has, through pretrial discovery, compiled a list of more than two dozen entities that have bid on federal oil and gas leases without ever finalizing the agreements with payments, Shea said. Some of those bids reached as high as $900,000.

Outside the judge's chambers, prosecutor John Huber acknowledged that, before the DeChristopher case, authorities in Utah never had brought charges against a corporation or person who won a lease bid and did not pay.

In an August 2009 report from the Interior Department, the inspector general found that, in the past five years, 35 such "bid-walkers" defaulted on 152 of the approximately 14,000 parcels sold for an estimated loss of $3.4 million --- less than 1 percent of the $1.2 billion in lease auction revenue.

But the vast majority of them did not intend to default on their bids, according to federal officials, a significant mitigating factor.

"To date, the occurrence of bad-faith bidders has been rare," the report states, "with only two known cases [including DeChristopher] in the last five years."

Shea declined Tuesday to elaborate on what role that could play in his client's defense. However, earlier he had thrown out a rhetorical challenge to the charges against his client, saying: "You didn't prosecute those people, why are you prosecuting Tim DeChristopher?"

For his part, DeChristopher remained circumspect Tuesday.

"We still have some options open to us," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get the pertinent information before a jury."

The defendant said the BLM had not followed proper procedures when putting up for bid the oil and gas leases near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

"The auction," he said, "was an abuse of power."

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines if he is convicted, although prosecutors have said that, because the defendant has no criminal record, he likely would receive less than five years.

csmart@sltrib.com

OK, so Tim DeChristopher can't argue at his newly scheduled March trial that he monkey-wrenched an oil and gas lease auction to save the world from global warming -- the judge won't let him -- but he may have another possible defense: selective prosecution.

Turns out, dozens of other bidders in the past five years have failed to make good on their bids for federal drilling leases.

So why single out DeChristopher with two felony charges his attorneys ask.

The reason, prosecutors suggest, is that all but two of those failed bids (including DeChristopher's) were made in good faith.

The case moved closer to a courtroom showdown Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Dee Benson setting a three-day jury trial starting March 15 for the 28-year-old University of Utah economics major, who bid on and won 14 lease parcels near national parks last December.

DeChristopher said he had no intention of paying the $1.8 million and was using civil disobedience to scuttle an illegal auction. He has not disputed that he placed the bogus bids, but had hoped to argue his actions were justified to stave off climate change. But Benson sided with prosecutors last month in barring that line of defense.

Benson set the March trial Tuesday during a closed-door conference in the judge's chambers.

Afterward, defense attorney Pat Shea, who oversaw the Bureau of Land Management during the Clinton administration, said that he and co-counsel Ron Yengich did not plan to appeal Benson's ruling on the environmental defense at this time, but did leave open the possibility for such an appeal later.

He vowed that DeChristopher's team would mount a vigorous defense.

"We've lost our arms," Shea said of Benson's earlier ruling, "but we've still got our legs."

For instance, the defense has, through pretrial discovery, compiled a list of more than two dozen entities that have bid on federal oil and gas leases without ever finalizing the agreements with payments, Shea said. Some of those bids reached as high as $900,000.

Outside the judge's chambers, prosecutor John Huber acknowledged that, before the DeChristopher case, authorities in Utah never had brought charges against a corporation or person who won a lease bid and did not pay.

In an August 2009 report from the Interior Department, the inspector general found that, in the past five years, 35 such "bid-walkers" defaulted on 152 of the approximately 14,000 parcels sold for an estimated loss of $3.4 million --- less than 1 percent of the $1.2 billion in lease auction revenue.

But the vast majority of them did not intend to default on their bids, according to federal officials, a significant mitigating factor.

"To date, the occurrence of bad-faith bidders has been rare," the report states, "with only two known cases [including DeChristopher] in the last five years."

Shea declined Tuesday to elaborate on what role that could play in his client's defense. However, earlier he had thrown out a rhetorical challenge to the charges against his client, saying: "You didn't prosecute those people, why are you prosecuting Tim DeChristopher?"

For his part, DeChristopher remained circumspect Tuesday.

"We still have some options open to us," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to get the pertinent information before a jury."

The defendant said the BLM had not followed proper procedures when putting up for bid the oil and gas leases near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

"The auction," he said, "was an abuse of power."

DeChristopher faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines if he is convicted, although prosecutors have said that, because the defendant has no criminal record, he likely would receive less than five years.

csmart@sltrib.com