(Repeats to fix typo in headline)

By Tim Gaynor

BISBEE, Arizona, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A rancher accused of holding a Mexican-American family at gunpoint went on trial in this southern Arizona town on Tuesday in a case highlighting border vigilantism, rights groups said.

Roger Barnett is being tried at Cochise County Superior Court, 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Tucson, in a civil suit brought by two local families seeking in excess of $200,000 in damages for an incident during a hunting jaunt two years ago.

Ronald and Renee Morales say their family was assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned by Barnett during the deer hunting trip on Oct. 30, 2004. All are U.S. citizens of Mexican-American heritage.

In court documents, the family said Barnett loaded an assault rifle and leveled it at the group, harangued and abused them, their two daughters, and the daughter of another family also named in the suit.

Barnett, who runs a tow truck company in the rugged corner of southeast Arizona, denies the allegations and says the family was trespassing on his land.

DISTURBING CASE

While numerous incidents of vigilante violence have been reported on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, including some Hispanic voters being harassed by men in paramilitary combat gear in Tucson during the midterm elections on Nov. 7, rights activists say the Barnett case is disturbing because the Moraleses are U.S. Hispanics.

"This lawsuit demonstrates that border vigilante violence has not been limited just to immigrant men, women and children crossing the Arizona border," said Jennifer Allen, the director of the Border Action Network.

"In this case, Mexican-American girls, their father and grandfather were afraid they were going to be shot and killed by a man who boasts that he's detained more than 10,000 immigrants," she added.

Barnett faces another suit alleging violence against illegal immigrants which has yet to come to trial. He claims to have detained more than 10,000 people who crossed the border illegally from Mexico in recent year, and handed them over to the U.S. Border Patrol.

The Morales family is American, and Ronald Morales is a veteran who served in the U.S. Navy for six years.

The suit names two other plaintiffs, Edward and Ana English, whose daughter Emma, was also traveling in the car stopped by Barnett, along with the Morales' two daughters Venese, then aged 11, and Angelique, aged nine.

Barnett faces another suit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund last year, alleging that he held a group of illegal entrants at gunpoint on his property.

That suit claims he kicked a woman immigrant as she lay on the ground, and threatened to set his dogs on anyone who tried to leave the area.

Barnett called the plaintiffs in that case "racist liars" and denied the incident ever took place. The case has yet to be brought to trial.

Lawyers began jury selection in Bisbee on Monday for the current trial, which is due to continue into next week.

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