Father and Son Sentenced in Keystone Creek Vandalism Case
Sentences include 30 days in jail and restoration at their expense.
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Updated
A defendant using heavy equipment to modify a historic carriage route to carry a truck and mining equipment. The District Attorney says work was not permitted and resulted in extensive amounts of rock and soil passing into or threatening to pass into Keystone Creek, which flows into the North Fork of the Yuba River near Loganville.
Sierra County District Attorney
LOGANVILLE – A father and son have been sentenced to 30 days each in county jail and ordered to restore public and private land damaged in a mining case along Keystone Creek, the Sierra County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release sent October 20.
Gregory Arnoldi Jr., of Nevada City, and his father, Gregory Arnoldi Sr., of Browns Valley, pleaded no contest to felony vandalism and misdemeanor water pollution and stream alteration charges, according to the release from District Attorney Sandra Groven. Both men will serve their 30-day sentences at Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City.
The case involved construction of an unpermitted dirt road along Keystone Creek near Loganville, on land managed by the United States Forest Service and adjacent private property. The release describes work with heavy equipment to modify a historic carriage route for a truck and mining equipment. The work caused large amounts of rock and soil to enter or threaten to enter Keystone Creek, which flows into the North Fork of the Yuba River, the release says.
Each man was fined $8,135 and placed on three years of felony probation, with mining prohibited throughout that period. They must pay all permitting, design, and construction costs for restoring the affected properties.
The men have until August 1, 2027, to implement the restoration work. According to the district attorney’s office, failure to meet that deadline will bring each man an additional eight months in county jail and more than $30,000 in additional criminal fines. They are also liable for restitution to the affected property owners.
Groven said the damage included mining artifacts. “While Sierra County is proud of its mining history and heritage that continues to this day, we take the laws that govern mining seriously,” she said in the release.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Warden Dane Frazier investigated the case with assistance from the agency’s Habitat Conservation branch in Rancho Cordova, according to the release. Deputy District Attorney Matt Carr prosecuted it through the Circuit Prosecutor Project, which supports environmental and natural resource prosecutions in rural northern California counties.
Groven also told The Mountain Messenger that both men were convicted of claim jumping in Sierra County in 2024, and confirmed that Arnoldi Sr. was the Grass Valley Gold and Silver owner prosecuted in Nevada County for selling counterfeit gold bars.
According to a February 2015 release from the Nevada County District Attorney’s Office, customers paid $175,500 for bars sold as gold bullion in two transactions in April 2014. They reported the suspected fraud that December after learning some of the bars were counterfeit when they tried to redeem them at another dealer.
The Union reported in 2016 that more than 35 victims, many older than 60, had been identified. The newspaper reported that Arnoldi pleaded no contest to nine counts and received a sentence of 13 years and four months in state prison in proceedings that also included a separate welfare fraud case.
Water pollution and poaching can be reported anonymously through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s CalTIP program at (888) 334-2258.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new information confirmed by District Attorney Sandra Groven, including her confirmation of Arnoldi Sr.’s connection to the Grass Valley counterfeit-gold case and background on that case.