FAIRBANKS -- The National Park Service ended up on trial here Wednesday in what was supposed to be a case against a 70-year-old resident of Central, Alaska, who led a short, but action-packed, high-speed riverboat chase along the Yukon River in September.

From the day that encounter in the remote wilds of Alaska first erupted into a national incident -- the state and the federal government are still in court arguing over who has authority for a river through the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve long used for both Alaska and Canadian commerce -- Jim Wilde, the man accused by the Park Service of fleeing and endangering rangers, has protested that all he ever wanted to do was take his boat to the safety of a riverbank before meeting with the government men who wanted to do a "safety inspection."

Before doing this, however, two rangers have testified Wilde said, "You fucking cocksuckers. I'm not stopping." He gunned his boat and headed upriver.

Wilde has said he was aiming for a good place to beach the boat on the shore. Rangers have testified they thought he was fleeing for Canada, more than 100 miles away.

Whichever the case, rangers launched a pursuit. Based on the testimony, it took between a minute and 15 seconds to two minutes and covered a distance between a quarter-mile and a half-mile -- once or twice around your average high school track.

A lot of action transpired in this relatively short time and distance, however.

Ranger Joe Dallemalle pulled his handgun and pointed it at Wilde, who was seated at the steering wheel of his boat. Both Dallemalle and ranger Ben Grodjesk testified that Wilde responded by swerving his boat toward theirs. Dallemalle then decided his handgun wasn't doing enough to intimidate Wilde and his two passengers, so he grabbed a shotgun, ratcheted a shell into the chamber, and took aim at the man.

Legally, in the state of Alaska, Wilde attorney Bill Satterberg noted in court Wednesday, this constitutes the use of "deadly force" which is to be used by law enforcement authorities only in extreme situations. Reading from a Park Service manual, he noted that even that agency says such force is to be used only in situations in which lives are in danger.

So why here? the attorney asked.

"He (Wilde) was a threat to himself, his passengers and the public," Grodjesk said.

Wilde, his 73-year-old wife, Hannelore, and elderly friend Fred Shank were at the time deep in the Yukon-Charley Preserve, a long forgotten back corner of Alaska. Though it was then moose hunting season along the river, one of the busiest times of the year, rangers testified they'd seen only one other boat on the day Wilde's showed up where they were staking out a bend near a place called Slaven's Cabin.

Rifles and handcuffs for 'failure to identify'

Wilde approached the rangers in his boat after they waved at him, but he grew uncooperative when they identified themselves and told him to turn his boat off in midriver, in a current estimated around 6 mph, in order to await their inspection. Then the chase began. The guns were brandished. Wilde beached his boat. The rangers, saying Wilde looked aggressive, jumped him; threatened to Taser him if he didn't start cooperating; handcuffed him; hauled him tens of miles downriver to Circle; and then put him in a car for a long drive to the jail in Fairbanks.

Satterberg wanted to know if this was standard treatment for Yukon-Charley visitors. Grodjesk said no. Satterberg then started asking about what happened near the confluence of the Nation and Yukon rivers in the preserve only weeks before Wilde was arrested. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Cooper objected. He rose from his chair to argue the Nation River had nothing to do with the Wilde case.

Satterberg disagreed. He said what happened on the Nation showed a pattern of behavior by the Park Service that might make the locals unwilling to cooperate. Cooper objected again. "He can't do that," the prosecutor said. Magistrate Judge Scott A. Oravec, however, decided Satterberg could.

Satterberg asked Grodjesk if he'd handcuffed a man near the Nation River in August and then kept him in handcuffs for hours.

"Yes," responded Grodjesk, adding, "I don't recall the time."

And why was the man handcuffed? Satterberg asked.