I did get my 4Runner back last week. Everything looks as good as new, you can't tell anything had happened.
We are still in the middle of the situation so I probably shouldn't post too much about it. Basically we're being told that the county attorney is pressing charges that amount to a couple of misdemeanor traffic violations, nothing about criminal charges. They are doing that under the guise of that being the best way for us to get our money out of the guy and his insurance. We are still going to be meeting with our attorney to check on our options, see how much it's going to be worth to go after him in a civil case.
Catskills4Runner, As far as the public access in MT goes, I've never had any issues before so I wouldn't say it's anything to worry too much about and avoid coming here because of it. I've primarily stayed on the rivers in south central MT. The Yellowstone, Stillwater, Bighorn, Boulder, and Madison are the main rivers we're on each summer. The Boulder is the only one that we've run across some crazy people. They're not too fond of recreationists around there(as you can see). The river laws here are the same that you had mentioned in NY, the high water mark is state land, anything above that is going to be trespassing in most areas. I've heard WY has stricter laws on that, but I tend not to make it down there much, except to drive through, so I can't speak too much to that.
Thanks for the compliment on the cat, it's actually relatively old and worn out so we've been looking at upgrading to a new one soon, same thing, just new tubes and frame. Depending on what happens with this situation, we'll probably use the money we get to buy a new cat, kind of a nice "f you" to this land owner and the whole situation.