Out of 18 other defendants who also faced conspiracy charges, 11 have pleaded guilty and the other seven will stand trial early next year.
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The sheriff, who became the face of law enforcement during the refuge occupation, wore a dark suit, sky blue dress shirt and blue tie in court Wednesday, a stark change from his familiar green sheriff’s jacket.
Inmates are seen in police jail booking photos released by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. That protest grew into demands for the US government to turn public range over to local control. But in opening statements prosecutors said Bundy and the other protesters broke the law when they threatened and intimidated federal employees during the 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year. Bundy and his brother, Ammon Bundy, are set to go on trial 9 months after the armed occupation of a wild. The government owns more than half of Oregon’s land and nearly 40% of all the land in Arizona, where Bundy owns a truck maintenance shop.
Bundy and his brother, along with their father, rancher Cliven Bundy, also face charges in Nevada stemming from an armed standoff there with federal agents in 2014.
The takeover began as a protest against the imprisonment of two OR ranchers convicted of setting fires and quickly grew into demands for the US government to turn public lands over to locals.
After his arrest, Ammon Bundy had said that he planned to “use the criminal discovery process to obtain information and government records”.
There is a lot of controversy as to whether the Bundy brothers and the other protestors acted within the law. “He said I needed to remove Ward from office and take over because Ward is an unconstitutional sheriff”, Needham told the jury. The agency was seeing 10 times the usual volume, he said, and it was impossible to keep up.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) The occupiers who took over a national wildlife refuge warned an OR sheriff that his county would be “invaded” by armed citizens if he didn’t protect his constituents from the federal government, the law officer testified Wednesday.
“The Bundys have sent out a nationwide alert”. Debates over potential jurors turned into arguments over the Second Amendment.
Again, the sheriff said he assured the group he would continue to look into the Hammond case but that it would take some time.
Why didn’t employees go to the refuge during the occupation?
He also told jurors that he instructed his deputies to stay away from the protest.
Ward said it was “absolutely not a peaceful occupation”, describing gunmen clearing rooms using military-style tactics. “The thought of that happening in my community scared the hell out of me”, he testified.
Ward held a town hall meeting after he read comments from Ammon Bundy that he would leave the refuge if the community wanted him out. While the Malheur County district attorney said the deadly shooting was justified because the troopers feared for their lives, the incident prompted other investigations because authorities say FBI agents who were there fired shots and never reported them.
On Jan. 7, Ward arranged to meet with Ammon Bundy on a rural roadside outside of the refuge. 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.
“I didn’t go to pick a fight”, Ward testified.
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Ward testified that Bundy asked for another meeting and showed up on November 19 with around 10 other men, majority armed. “The threat I perceived was that they would bring people to town and try to overpower or overthrow my authority as sheriff”, Ward said. “I wanted them to realize there’s appropriate channels to go through”. “I don’t think Mr. Bundy is going to be hiding in my closet at night”, Ward told the jury. In a clip of the meeting, Ward offered Bundy safe passage out of OR and praised him for getting out his message about government overreach. “Culturally, it’s not normal to have 100 people walking around with firearms around our streets”.
