One day in jail for Emmaus man who threatened federal ranger over Bundy ranch standoff

Rancher Cliven Bundy speaks with supporters at an event Saturday, April 11, 2015, in Bunkerville, Nev. Bundy was holding the event to celebrate the one year anniversary since the Bureau of Land Management's failed attempt to collect his cattle.
(John Locher / AP)


By Laurie Mason Schroeder Of The Morning Call contact the reporter



One day in jail for Emmaus man who threatened federal ranger.

Angered by Nev. cattle ranch video, Emmaus man left death threats on ranger's phone.


Will Michael admits that leaving a profanity-laced death threat on the voice mail of a federal ranger involved in a Nevada cattle ranch standoff that made national headlines "wasn't such a good idea."

But the Emmaus man — the only person arrested among the hundreds who left phone messages for Chief Ranger Mike Roop following the altercation at Cliven Bundy's ranch — won't serve a long prison sentence for the crime.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg in Philadelphia sentenced Michael, 24, to one day of imprisonment, to be followed by three years' supervised release, and a $200 special assessment. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Michael could have been sentenced to 15 to 21 months behind bars.


Emmaus man admits death threat to ranger in Nevada cattle standoff

Goldberg ordered Michael to complete 50 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to Roop. He must also keep a job and apply to at least three colleges by the end of the year.

Michael's attorney, John Waldron, said his client was taken to the lockup at the U.S. Marshal's Office in Philadelphia after the hearing, and would be released sometime Tuesday.

Waldron said the sentence was a wake up call for Michael, who does not know Bundy and doesn't belong to any of the so-called citizen militias who showed up at the ranch to support Bundy during the 2014 standoff.

"Will has apologized, and he realizes that you can't go around doing something like this," Waldron said.

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Michael pleaded guilty in April to threatening a federal law enforcement officer and interstate communication of threats.

The charges carried a maximum prison sentence of 15 years, but under a plea agreement, federal prosecutors recommended probation.

Federal agents arrested Michael on May 20, 2014, following an investigation into a phone message left for the ranger a month earlier that was traced to the Emmaus Smoke Shop, where Michael worked.

"We're gonna find you; we're gonna kill you," the message stated, court records show. Michael called Roop a "thug" on the recording, and used homophobic slurs.


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When authorities confronted Michael, he initially denied leaving the message. He later admitted making the call after viewing a video on the "Support Bundy Ranch" Facebook page.

Creators of the page had posted Roop's work phone number and encouraged people to harass the ranger, court records say.

Michael told investigators that he became angry after watching the video, which showed Roop pushing Bundy's sister, who was blocking the path of U.S. Bureau of Land Management vehicles.

"Looking back, it wasn't such a good idea," Michael told the agents, court records say.

Bundy's feud with the government in 2013 caught the attention of anti-government activists across the country who objected to federal tactics being used to remove Bundy's 500 head of cattle from protected desert grassland.

A Mormon cattleman whose family has farmed in the Virgin River Valley near Bunkerville, Nev., for more than a century, Bundy accused federal officials of trampling his ancestral rights to the land, and refused to pay grazing fees that by 2013 had topped $1 million.

The government said Bundy and his family were illegally running cattle in the habitat of the protected desert tortoise. In July 2013, a federal judge ruled that if Bundy did not remove his cattle from the land, the government could seize them.

The situation reached a tense climax in April 2014 when federal officials rounded up hundreds of Bundy's cattle, only to release them as more than a thousand armed "militia" descended on the ranch to support Bundy.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in May, Bundy said he was worried about Michael, saying he believed the government was making an example out of him.

"He's guilty for what he did and he's admitted that. He was exercising his right to free speech like all of us did," Bundy told the paper. "If they're going to hang him, we all need to be hung, because we all have the same feelings."

Waldron on Tuesday said his client was not bitter that he was singled out among the callers.

"In the eyes of the FBI, what he said was viewed as being the most serious of the calls," he said. "Will is a young man who made a rash decision after viewing conduct that caused him to feel the need to voice his opinions. The problem was the way he voiced his opinion was inappropriate and threatening."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Boden said that he had not listened to the other calls and could not compare the threats Michael made with those of other callers, but noted that Michael's message was the only one that prompted an investigation.

"Any time there is conduct that results in the violation of a federal law, that must be taken seriously," Boden said.

Waldron said Michael was very nervous during the sentencing hearing because Goldberg grilled him about the crime, and also questioned why he hadn't returned to college. Michael studied chemistry at Lehigh Carbon Community College after high school, but put his education on hold to work, Waldron said.

"With this sentence, Judge Goldberg is pushing him to do something with his life. It's unusual, but I wouldn't mind seeing more sentences like that," Waldron said.

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