State v. Thelen, 305 Neb. 334

John E. Thelen was charged with three misdemeanor counts under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 39-301 for repeatedly erecting an electric fence within the county right-of-way (ditch) adjacent to his property on specified dates in 2016.
Cedar County had established a 66-foot county road right-of-way (33 feet from centerline each side); the fence was placed in the ditch portion of that right-of-way (roughly 16–31 feet from centerline, about 3 feet from the gravel edge).
County officials and the sheriff investigated, gave prior notices (2013–2016) to remove the fence, denied Thelen’s request for permission, and on three occasions in 2016 seized fencing materials after observing fences at the location.
The County incurred about $401 in labor costs removing the fences and picking up wire; Thelen had been convicted in 2015 for erecting a fence at the same location.
A county court convicted Thelen on the three 2016 counts; the district court (acting as an intermediate appellate court) affirmed, and the Nebraska Supreme Court reviewed statutory interpretation and sufficiency-of-the-evidence issues on further appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the ditch/right-of-way is part of a "public road" under § 39-301	§ 39-301 and related chapter 39 definitions and statutes treat a road as including the entire area within the right-of-way, so the ditch is part of the public road	Ditch/right-of-way is not part of the "public road" for purposes of § 39-301; placing a fence in a ditch does not violate the statute	The court held that "public road" includes the entire area within the county right-of-way, so the ditch was part of the public road and § 39-301 applied
Whether evidence was sufficient to prove Thelen erected/placed the fences	Circumstantial evidence, prior conduct, requests for permission, prior conviction, repeated placement after notice, and possession/requests for seized materials supported conviction	No direct eyewitness evidence of Thelen erecting the fences; no clear admission he did so	The court held the circumstantial evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find Thelen responsible and affirmed the convictions

State v. McCave, 282 Neb. 500, 805 N.W.2d 290 (2011) (standard of appellate review for county-court criminal appeals)
State v. McCurdy, 301 Neb. 343, 918 N.W.2d 292 (2018) (sufficiency-of-the-evidence standard in criminal cases)
State v. Stanko, 304 Neb. 675, 936 N.W.2d 353 (2019) (construction of penal statutes—strict but sensible interpretation)
Pittman v. Western Engineering Co., 283 Neb. 913, 813 N.W.2d 487 (2012) (statutes in pari materia should be construed together to ascertain legislative intent)
Fontenelle Equip. v. Pattlen Enters., 262 Neb. 129, 629 N.W.2d 534 (2001) (use of chapter-wide statutory definitions and consistent interpretation)