Thread: No guilty verdicts in Bundy Ranch standoff trial

No guilty verdicts in Bundy Ranch standoff trial

USA TODAY NETWORK Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic Published 9:41 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2017 | Updated 9:41 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2017

Carol Bundy, in an interview with The Republic, said her husband, sons and others are really being tried for making federal authorities look bad and forcing them to back down in the face of a citizen uprising.



(Photo: Lucas M. Thomas/The Spectrum)


PHOENIX — A federal jury in Las Vegas did not return any guilty verdicts Tuesday against four men accused of conspiracy and weapons charges for their roles in the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff.

Jurors returned not guilty verdicts on some counts and deadlocked on others after four days of deliberation, delivering a second surprising defeat to federal prosecutors in the case.

Jurors notified U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro on Tuesday that they had reached an impasse on several counts, and the defendants were called into court at 2 p.m. when the verdicts were returned.

Richard Lovelien of Oklahoma and Eric Parker, Steven Stewart and O. Scott Drexler, all of Idaho, were being retried on conspiracy, extortion, assault and obstruction charges for helping Cliven Bundy fend off a government roundup of his cattle in what became known as the Battle of Bunkerville.

A jury in April deadlocked on charges against the four men. It convicted two other defendants on multiple counts. But the jury could not agree on conspiracy charges — a key component of the government's case — against any of the six.

More: Judge declares mistrial in Bundy Ranch case

More: First of 3 trials set to begin in Bundy ranch standoff

The government launched its second prosecution last month. The case ended dramatically last week, when defense attorneys waived closing arguments as part of a protest about court proceedings and legal rulings they said prevented them from offering a proper defense.


The Bundy Ranch standoff is one of the most high-profile land-use cases in modern Western history, pitting cattle ranchers, anti-government protesters and militia members against the Bureau of Land Management.

For decades, the BLM repeatedly ordered Bundy to remove his cattle from federal lands and in 2014 obtained a court order to seize his cattle as payment for more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees.

Hundreds of supporters from every state in the union, including members of several militia groups, converged on his ranch about 70 miles north of Las Vegas.

Navarro's rulings, aimed at trying to avoid jury nullification, severely limited defense arguments. Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict based on its shared belief rather than on the evidence in a case.

Navarro barred defendants from discussing why they traveled thousands of miles to join protesters at the Bundy Ranch. She did not allow them to testify about perceived abuses by federal authorities during the cattle roundup that might have motivated them to participate.

Navarro also restricted defendants from raising constitutional arguments, or mounting any defense based on their First Amendment rights to free speech and their Second Amendment rights to bear arms. In her rulings, Navarro said those were not applicable arguments in the case.

Federal officials did not face the same restrictions. To show defendants were part of a conspiracy, they referenced events that happened months, or years, after the standoff.

Three trials are scheduled for 17 defendants who are being prosecuted based on their alleged levels of culpability in the standoff.

Although defendants in the first trial and the retrial were considered the least culpable, all face the same charges.

Those convicted could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The second trial will include Cliven Bundy and his sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who are considered ringleaders.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ial/592382001/

Armed militia group attempting to overthrow the government

Wow! So the jury found no reason to convict these men! I wonder how long many of them will have to suffer in prison or jail even though they have not or will not be convicted?

W

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Wow! So the jury found no reason to convict these men! I wonder how long many of them will have to suffer in prison or jail even though they have not or will not be convicted?

W

Richard Lovelien of Oklahoma and Steven Stewart of Idaho were acquitted on all counts and walked out of court Tuesday night free after spending more than a year in prison.

"Both Ricky and I were teary-eyed," Las Vegas defense lawyer Shawn Perez said of the verdict, "I was shaking ... I have gotten not-guilty verdicts before, but this was really special to me."

Two other defendants, Eric Parker and O. Scott Drexler, both of Idaho, were acquitted on the most serious charges of conspiracy and extortion, but jurors failed to reach unanimous verdicts on weapons and assault charges.


Both men could be allowed to go free after a detention hearing scheduled Wednesday morning. The court ordered both defendants to be released to a halfway house until Wednesday's hearing.

"(Parker) is getting released as we speak," Las Vegas defense lawyer Jess Marchese said Tuesday night. "He's ecstatic."

After the jury's decision, U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro called for the hearing without any motions from the defense, Marchese said. "We didn't bring it up," he said.

Federal prosecutors had little to say about the verdicts.

“While we are disappointed with the verdicts, we thank the jurors for their service," Trisha Young, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Las Vegas, said in a statement Tuesday. "At this time, the government has not announced its decision regarding the retrial of Eric Parker and O. Scott Drexler.”

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...ial/592019001/

Prosecutor vows 3rd trial for 2 in Bundy ranch standoff case

KEN RITTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 23, 2017 Updated: August 23, 2017 2:46pm

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Photo: Michael Quine, AP
Cliven Bundy's daughter, Bailey Bundy Logue, left, and Margaret Houston of Logandale, Nev., wave signs in front of the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse in Las Vegas after the not guilty verdict in the Bunkerville, ... more


LAS VEGAS (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Nevada vowed a third trial Wednesday for two men accused of armed assault on a federal officer in a 2014 standoff that stopped a cattle roundup near the ranch of states' rights figure Cliven Bundy.

"There's no question about us proceeding forward. Just so the record's clear," Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre told Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro a day after a jury acquitted two defendants of all 10 charges but failed to reach verdicts on four charges against Eric Parker and two counts against Scott Drexler.

"Raising a firearm against a federal law enforcement officer, or any law enforcement officer, is a crime," Myhre declared as he lost a bid to keep the two men in federal custody until the next trial. "That's why we brought (Parker) to trial and ... intend to try him a third time."

Parker and Drexler were photographed during the standoff on a high Interstate 15 freeway overpass near Bunkerville pointing rifles through concrete sidewall barriers toward heavily armed federal agents in a dry riverbed below. The agents were guarding corrals of rounded-up cattle and facing flag-waving unarmed men, women and children.

Navarro ruled that Parker, 34, of Hailey, Idaho, and Drexler, 46, of Challis, Idaho, can return to their home state to await trial, which she scheduled Sept. 25. She also scheduled an Aug. 31 hearing to determine if the date will stand.

Keeping the September date for the two men would mean another delay starting trial for Bundy, four of his sons and six other defendants who have been in federal custody since their arrests in early 2016 despite invoking their rights to a speedy trial.

The judge had set a schedule to begin trial this year for Cliven Bundy, sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and co-defendants Ryan Payne and Peter Santilli. Another trial for the remaining six defendants would be held next year.

"I just never expected they'd try them a third time," Bret Whipple, Cliven Bundy's lawyer, said Wednesday when he learned of Myhre's comments. "It's such a waste of taxpayer dollars, especially when they were so close to acquittal."

In all, the jury of six men and six women reached not-guilty verdicts on 34 of 40 counts. Ricky Lovelien of Westville, Oklahoma, and Steven Stewart of Hailey, Idaho, were acquitted of all charges, even though jurors saw photos of them with weapons as well.

No verdicts were returned on assault on a federal officer, threatening a federal officer and two related of use of a firearm counts against Parker, and assault on a federal officer and brandishing a firearm charges against Drexler.

Parker's attorney, Jess Marchese, said Wednesday that a juror who remained at the courthouse on Tuesday told him that votes were 11-1 for acquittal on the six hung charges.

No defendants were found guilty of a key conspiracy charge alleging that they plotted with Bundy family members to create a self-styled militia and prevent federal Bureau of Land Management agents from enforcing court orders to remove Bundy cattle from arid desert rangeland in what is now Gold Butte National Monument.

Bundy says he doesn't recognize federal authority over public land where he said his family grazed cattle since the early 1900s. His dispute echoes a nearly half-century fight over public lands involving ranchers in Nevada and the West, where the federal government controls vast expanses of land.

Lovelien and Stewart were in the crowded courtroom gallery Wednesday when Myhre recalled the tense April 2014 standoff.

Bundy backers in the audience gasped as the prosecutor described Parker's actions as cowardly.

"He slithered behind the Jersey barrier to hide," Myhre said, invoking a lesson he said he learned during his service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

"There's nothing more dangerous than a coward with a weapon," Myhre said. "That's what we have here."

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crim...h-11953390.php

That prosecutor vowing to put these men through this a third time is clearly pursuing some personal political agenda and needs to stop.

W