The trial is now getting underway.
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Ward testified in federal court in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2016, against seven defendants who took part in the 41-day standoff at an OR national wildlife refuge earlier this year.
For 41 days in January and February, national attention focused on the siege at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a snowy, remote stretch of land in eastern OR otherwise notable for birdwatching. He’s the manager of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, so he’s going to testify that federal employees were impeded from doing their jobs, addressing the central charge prosecutors have levied against the defendants.
The standoff featured press conferences, a social media campaign and a flow of flow of protesters in and out of the compound unimpeded by law enforcement.
Before the occupation, Ward says group leader Ammon Bundy and another man urged the sheriff to protect two local ranchers who faced additional prison time for setting fires on federal lands. Four holdouts stayed at the refuge for another 16 days. But they overwhelmingly opposed the standoff and repeatedly asked Bundy’s band to leave peacefully.
This case has since shifted to a federal courtroom in Portland, where seven defendants face charges that included conspiring to impede US officers as well as counts of firearms crimes.
Payne pleaded guilty earlier this year.
The trial is expected to last two months. But before the long-anticipated trial at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse could begin, Judge Anna Brown announced that one of the jurors had been excused on hardship conditions. Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday in the trial of the Bundy brothers, Am.
The armed protesters who occupied a remote bird sanctuary in Oregon’s high desert earlier this year did so to protest federal land policy, which has been a point of contention in Western states for decades.
Ryan Bundy, the brother of group leader Ammon Bundy, is acting as his own attorney.
During his comments, Barrow said that Bundy and the others began plotting the occupation in November 2015 when they met with Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward over the situation involving the ranchers.
Ward said he wasn’t there to pick a fight.
Ammon Bundy “did what he did to demand accountability from the federal government”, Mumford said.
“He demands the federal government obey the law”.
“The issues are serious”, Mumford said. “Ammon has been labeled a terrorist and imprisoned for seven months”.
Bundy grew up the son of a rancher, Mumford said, and became a “reluctant activist”.
Prosecutors will likely argue in opening statements that the defendants engaged in a well thought out and coordinated effort to commit a crime and that their actions and presence of firearms fall outside protections granted under the U.S. Constitution. Debates over potential jurors turned into arguments over the Second Amendment.
Occupier Ryan Bundy said as a federal trial began Tuesday that the protesters came to enforce the law, and that he wasn’t anti-government.
Five of the defendants are also charged with possession of a firearm and two with theft of government property.
“To a degree, yes”, Ward said. He had also resisted the description of his group as armed occupiers, saying that they were educating people and trying to help them reach freedom. The Malheur refuge’s headquarters remained closed, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while other parts of the grounds reopened for visitors.
The nearby Burns Paiute Tribe also criticized the occupiers, noting that prehistoric archaeological sites were located at the refuge and that tribal members considered Malheur part of their ancestral land. Authorities examining the refuge following the takeover ended said they found guns, explosives and feces on the grounds.
Eaton testified that the first group included Ryane Payne, Jason Patrick, Ryan Bundy, Mel Bundy (who has not been indicted on charges in this case) and LaVoy Finicum, who was killed by Oregon State Police in January.
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“I was told my responsibility was to prevent them from going to prison, and if I didn’t do those things, they would bring hundreds of people to town to do my job for me”, Ward said.
