SSSR denies any involvement in alleged incident at Council Member Ed Lytle’s home
Sept. 16, 2026
Save the Scenic Santa Ritas today issued a demand letter to the Sahuarita Town Council, staff and police for records related to accusations published Tuesday in the Green Valley News claiming SSSR confronted council member Ed Lytle at this home over his support for Copper World.
The GVN quoted Sahuarita Police Department Commander Manny Amado in an online post claiming that three persons from Save the Scenic Santa Ritas drove from Phoenix and confronted Lytle in his driveway on September 10.
“It is extremely irresponsible and unprofessional that Commander Amado made public statements claiming members of SSSR were responsible for this incident without first conducting any further investigation or obtaining a statement from SSSR,” SSSR attorneys Adriane Hofmeyr and Rui Wang stated in the letter sent to all council members, Town Manager Shane Dille and Sahuarita Police Chief John Noland.
“No one from SSSR was involved in this alleged incident and SSSR repeatedly made that clear to the Green Valley News before it published an article that is a textbook example of irresponsible and unethical journalism,” SSSR Executive Director John Dougherty said.
SSSR has two paid staff members – Dougherty and Outreach Coordinator Paige Humphrey. Neither were in Sahuarita on Sept. 10. SSSR has several thousand people who receive regular newsletters via emails from the nonprofit, but it has no members.
“Anyone who claims to be from SSSR while making a statement to an elected official or anyone else is doing so without our permission,” Dougherty said. “That being said, every citizen who opposes this mining project has the absolute right to peacefully voice their opposition to an elected official without the fear of being turned in to the police.”
Commander Amado states in the GVN’s story that Lytle called Sahuarita Police Chief John Noland about the alleged confrontation on the evening of Sept. 10.
The newspaper quotes Amado stating: “Now, we know they’re from the Scenic Santa Ritas because they introduced themselves as such, and they said they have driven down from Phoenix.”
SSSR is based in Tucson and most of its supporters live in Southern Arizona.
“While we certainly welcome support from everyone, the likelihood that anyone would drive from Phoenix to confront Mr. Lytle is virtually nil,” Dougherty said.
Amado claims there were two women and one man in their 30s and 40s who approached the councilman and berated him for ignoring SSSR’s concerns about the damage Copper World would do to the Santa Rita Mountains. Amado states that the council member allegedly told the trio that he would “not be intimidated by you.”
Amado does not state how he knows this is what occurred nor have police provided or indicated they have substantiating information such as video or audio recordings of the incident. SSSR has requested the police report for the alleged incident.
Several hours before the online publication of story, Dougherty called the Sahuarita Police Department at 11:51 a.m. Tuesday requesting the opportunity to make a statement.
“The department has not called me back,” Dougherty said. “Instead, it subsequently issued a statement to the GVN stating SSSR confronted the council member in his driveway.”
Dougherty also sent two text messages and had a phone call with Dan Shearer, former editor of the GVN and currently editorial director for Wick Newspapers, which owns the GVN. Dougherty told Shearer that SSSR had nothing to do with the incident and urged the paper to conduct a thorough investigation before rushing out a story.
“The GVN, however published Amado’s statement without providing SSSR an opportunity to respond,” Dougherty said. “To say this is shoddy journalism would be giving the GVN too much credit.”
SSSR first learned about the alleged incident on Monday night after Dougherty was contacted by a GVN reporter who shared a police dispatch log that mentioned SSSR. Dougherty told the reporter that SSSR had nothing to do with alleged incident and suggested it could have been orchestrated by Hudbay Minerals, the Toronto-based company that owns Copper World, to cast SSSR in a negative light.
“The Sahuarita police have known about this alleged incident since Sept. 10 and never contacted SSSR to discuss the matter,” Dougherty said. “The police then accused SSSR of confronting Lytle without presenting a shred of corroborating evidence. The GVN took the bait and published an unsubstantiated story.”
SSSR’s demand letter noted that it is “troubling that Council member Lytle contacted SPD Chief of Police John Noland rather than calling 911 to report the incident. This bypasses the public record trail the media and members of the public rely upon for a contemporaneous record of law enforcement events and injects even more doubt and obfuscation into this alleged incident.
“SSSR takes this incident very seriously and will pursue all legal options to determine. whether this confrontation occurred, and if so, who was involved.”
This is disturbing and reflects a disappointing level of law enforcement and journalistic integrity.
I concur it was likely mine employees. It’s far from the first time they have done some stupid and fairly transparent attempts to smear the opposition. I can picture them all having a beer and concocting this idiotic scheme while inviting their buddy over to make it look legit. As for Amado… well, you can go research that bunch. I used to live on the Sopori ranch and you sure learn a lot about the locals. (Another tragic story of how the owners sold off their water rights). I’d probably cry to see the beautiful watershed now.
How low can these people go? How gullible can people get???
Cmon! Drive down from Phoenix? Was that supposed to add drama?
Oh well how many cow pies do these people have to step in before everyone realizes how bad they stink?