Rzeczycki maintains that Bailey purposely ran him down on a backcountry trail south of Moab after he stopped her to explain that her group was traveling on an illegal route. Bailey says Rzeczycki jumped in front of her vehicle as she was navigating a rocky slope near the end of the Coyote Trail, then Rzeczycki's friend threatened her with a metal pipe. The trail is about 300 feet from private property Rzeczycki owns.
Last week, San Juan County charged Rzeczycki, a Grand County resident who also is at the center of a backcountry-trail dispute with San Juan authorities, with disorderly conduct. The county also charged Alexander Arbelo with aggravated assault stemming from the April incident with Bailey's caravan of off-road enthusiasts.
"I definitely felt it was intentional," Rzeczycki, who sustained a knee injury during the altercation, said Monday. "I was screaming in pain and the people in her group just stood by and watched."
Arbelo, he says, only approached Bailey's vehicle wielding the pipe to get her to back up.
"He stopped a certain distance away and said, 'back off,' Rzeczycki said. "I certainly think it was self-defense."
Bailey counters that Rzeczycki, Arbelo and a woman came "running across the wash screaming and yelling" as she inched her way down the rocky trail.
"He [Rzeczycki] jumped on the hood of my jeep on the driver's side. As I turned to the right and tried to go around him, he jumped to the other side and grabbed the tire," she said Tuesday. "It was totally an accident."
She was initially unaware that her vehicle was on his foot because the 42-inch tires blocked her view. When she realized he was trapped, she immediately tried to move the jeep.
"The other guy ran at me with a steel rod. I just froze," she said. "I was really afraid he was going to hit me. It was like a bad nightmare. I didn't know what to do."
San Juan County Attorney Craig Halls said the charges filed against Rzeczycki and Arbelo stemmed from eyewitness accounts of the incident. No charges are pending against Bailey.
Rzeczycki said he is shocked that San Juan County is "pursuing this case and wasting the taxpayers' money."
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