Minnesota opponents of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad coal train expansion have secretly instructed Wyoming landowners how to drag out DM&E's good-faith efforts to acquire land, according to a motion filed by the railroad.

The civil action in federal court in Wyoming accuses Rochester Coalition consultants of "coordinating efforts with a minority of the landowners along the railroad route … to misrepresent DM&E's dealings with landowners generally," it states.

The allegation stems from e-mails sent by opponents but not disclosed to the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based railroad as part of the discovery process in a federal lawsuit over DM&E's condemnation proceedings against about 20 Wyoming landowners.

DM&E wants a judge to order the violators to divulge electronic communications that should have been shared, allow computer experts to check the hard drives of those involved and impose sanctions.

Defendants include 400 acres in Campbell and Weston counties in Wyoming, Lenard Seeley, Teresa Seeley, Jeffery Seeley, Denise Seeley and Bank of the West on behalf of Harry Walter Keeline III trust, 170 acres in Weston County, Bryan Stroh and First National Bank.

The DM&E expansion, estimated to cost $6 billion, would add and improve tracks in Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota so it can ship coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

DM&E President Kevin Schieffer said the e-mails show that some of the opposition to the project isn't coming independently from a few Wyoming landowners but rather from a well-financed Minnesota organization.

"It's being orchestrated by a paid consulting effort by the Rochester group, which obviously has nothing to do with anything in Wyoming, other than its desire to kill the project that's good for South Dakota," he said.

In the communications to landowners, the consultant "basically gives them a menu of negative things to say about the railroad and says, 'Just pick one,"' Schieffer said.

A lawyer for the landowners did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

DM&E filed suit in 2007 against some 19 landowners in Converse, Weston, Campbell and Niobrara counties for its proposed railroad expansion. The railroad filed the suit on June 28, just days before recent changes to Wyoming's eminent domain laws went into effect on July 1.

Rick Weir, a landowner in northeast Wyoming involved in the lawsuit, said no one has asked him for any of his private e-mails.

"They're just fishing," Weir said. "I'm not a lawyer, but I don't know how they can ask for e-mails, or how it pertains to this case."

Weir said DM&E made only one offer, then took action to condemn the family's private property.

Wyoming landowner Donley Darnell said he has been asked to supply e-mails, but didn't say whether he has done so.

"We have right to assembly. We can assemble virtually. We don't have to meet in a town hall," Darnell said.

A spokesman for the Minnesota opponents sent the following statement to the Associated Press:

"The Rochester Coalition is not a party to the Wyoming litigation. We sympathize with the landowners who have to go up against a railroad that has admitted under oath it is spending ($3.5 million to $4 million) a month to advance their plans to take their land.

"It's disappointing to see the DM&E going to these types of tactics to distract attention from their own tactics to acquire with no regard for those impacted.

"It's bad enough that DM&E is trying to take their lands, but now they are getting sued for putting up a fight. The DM&E tactics in the suit are more evidence of DM&E's inability to treat folks on the line respectfully or fairly."

Schieffer said the DM&E learned of the secret communications through a computer disk inadvertently provided as part of the discovery process.

"You can see from the context that there's a ton of stuff we don't have," he said.

The Rochester Coalition's opposition to the expansion largely stems from concerns from the Mayo Clinic that a train accident near the hospital could endanger its patients.

The coalition has tried to have the DM&E build a bypass at Rochester to redirect the coal trains and increased traffic.

The group has pursued the effort in lawsuits, tried to block federal financing for the DM&E and supported landowners in western South Dakota and Wyoming who tried to kill the DM&E project rather than let new track cross their land.

In a filing in March, the Mayo Clinic asked the federal Surface Transportation Board to require the Canadian Pacific Railway and DM&E to carry out a list of mitigating actions before the panel approves the Canadian Pacific's acquisition of the DM&E.