The struggle over who has the right to fish and recreate along the Pecos River has unraveled in courtrooms as a test of the balance between private property rights and public access to natural resources. That dispute took a dramatic turn this week when state authorities arrested a private landowner for allegedly threatening fishermen with a firearm.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced the arrest of Erik Michael Briones, a landowner along the Pecos River. Torrez filed five counts of aggravated assault in San Miguel Magistrate Court against Briones. Prosecutors allege that the landowner threatened several fishermen during separate encounters along a stretch of the Pecos River bordering his property between April 2023 and March 2026.
State investigators said Briones brandished a firearm and warned fishermen that he would begin ‘target practicing’ nearby, making them fear he was about to shoot. “These allegations involve dangerous and unlawful intimidation directed at New Mexicans who were exercising their legal right to access and recreate in public waters,” Torrez said.
Private landowner and the law
The dispute involves a legal question of whether members of the public can use rivers that flow through private property. It has divided landowners, anglers, and outdoor recreation advocates for years.
The law protects the public’s right to use streams and streambeds through private property as long as they do not trespass on private property in reaching them. This right applies even to waters passing through privately owned land. In a previous court filing, the New Mexico Department of Justice secured court rulings affirming that right along portions of the Pecos River.
In its April 21 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit sided with the New Mexico Department of Justice, affirming the public’s right to use navigable public waters, including the Pecos River. The ruling has strengthened the state’s position in a case closely watched by property-rights advocates and outdoor recreation groups across the West.
Briones has long opposed the state’s interpretation of public access laws. At the height of the dispute in 2023, he maintained that he and his family were victims of harassment and trespassing by anglers entering his property. “One trespasser threatened to come back when we were gone and burn our cabin down,” Briones told a television investigation at the time. “One trespasser that I got the Game and Fish to remove with me told me, ‘I’m from Texas, you don’t know who my daddy is, he’s going to come after you.’”
Simmering tensions
The river access dispute continued to escalate in the courts. A federal court granted the state’s motion last month to hold Briones in contempt in the related civil litigation. The court found continued violations connected to public-access protections and court orders governing use of the river corridor.
His arrest now brings the bitter legal and political battle into the criminal justice system. It raised the stakes in a dispute that has become a symbol of simmering tensions across the American West over access to rivers and streams flowing through private land.
The criminal charges against Briones are allegations for the court to decide. It is likely to renew debate over how states balance private property rights with public access to rivers and streams, which have been viewed as shared natural resources.