Fate of Bundy Ranch supporters soon will be in jury's hands
Closing arguments set for Wednesday in one of the highest-profile land-use cases in modern Western history
LAS VEGAS — Closing arguments will begin Wednesday in the trial of six men accused of taking up arms against federal agents during a standoff at a Nevada ranch exactly three years ago.
The first of three trials in the most high-profile land-use cases in modern Western history opened seven weeks ago and could be in the hands of a federal jury as early as Thursday.
The six men, from Arizona, Idaho and Oklahoma, are among 17 defendants charged with conspiracy, extortion, assault and obstruction for helping rancher and states-rights advocate Cliven Bundy fend off a government roundup of his cattle. If convicted, they could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
"On the gun charges alone it is 52 years," Las Vegas defense lawyer Shawn Perez said Tuesday. "The jury doesn't know that ... If the jury knew what (the defendants') exposure was, they would be a little bit concerned. Because nothing happened. No shots were fired. Nobody was hurt."
Perez, who represents Oklahoma defendant Richard Lovelien, said while the six defendants are being tried together, most didn't know each other at the time of the standoff and all acted individually.
"The jury knows right now that Lovelien didn't point a gun at anybody," Perez said. "I'm fairly confident without arguments ... that they can't find him guilty of threatening or assault."
Federal prosecutors described the six men as part of an anti-government militia force who coordinated an armed assault on law-enforcement officers trying to uphold a court order to seize cattle grazing on public land.
Prosecutors called as many as 35 witnesses, including county, state and federal law-enforcement officers, who testified they feared for their lives as gunmen took positions above and around them in a dusty arroyo near Bundy's Bunkerville ranch about 80 miles north of Las Vegas.
The defense countered that law-enforcement officers were the aggressors during a six-day standoff, which ended without a shot being fired after a tension-filled climax on April 12, 2014.
They argued defendants were exercising their constitutional rights to peaceably assemble and to bear arms when they were confronted by hostile, militant law-enforcement officers.
The defense: Original strategy undercut by judge
Court records and interviews show defense lawyers planned on calling several witnesses to testify that Bureau of Land Management agents escalated the potential for violence in the runup to the standoff. Defendants previously accused law-enforcement officers of physically confronting protesters, shocking two of Bundy's sons with stun guns, wrecking ranching equipment and killing cattle.
But a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro last week undercut the defense strategy.
Navarro restricted witnesses from testifying about events before the standoff and limited their accounts only to actions that occurred during the standoff itself.
She also ruled last week not to include First and Second Amendment rights to assemble and to bear arms in instructions to the jury, meaning the jury won't have specific directions to consider those constitutional protections during deliberation.
After weeks of government testimony, the defense closed its case in less than a week after calling four witnesses, including Eric Parker, the only defendant willing to take the stand.
Parker, who was pictured lying prone on an overpass and sighting a long rifle through a crack between two concrete barriers, became a social-media celebrity on right-wing websites.
Parker, 33, of Idaho, told jurors he wasn't part of a conspiracy to prevent the roundup of Bundy's cattle but instead wanted to prevent innocent people from being shot by law-enforcement officers.
He said he joined the standoff because people's rights were being violated and he had a moral obligation to help.
Prosecutors: Emphasis on defendants' social-media posts
Prosecutors used social-media posts by defendants before and after the standoff to show how they bragged about cowing the government.
They also showed jurors footage taken by undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents posing as a film crew who interviewed defendants after the standoff.
Those interviews include Arizona defendant Gregory Burleson, who said on camera he wanted federal agents to die in gunfire.
Testimony in court revealed that two years before the armed standoff, Burleson was a paid FBI informant.
Burleson, who is blind and has diabetes, said in the undercover interview he rallied armed opposition during the Bundy standoff because federal agents were abusing their authority and violating the law.
But Perez pointed out Burleson's statements were made months after the standoff and could be seen as self-aggrandizing. He said on the day of the standoff Burleson didn't make it to the overpass.
"He didn't get there until five minutes before it all happened," Perez said.
Law enforcement: A chaotic scene, with orders ignored
For decades, the BLM repeatedly had 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.
Bundy issued a social-media battle cry. Hundreds of supporters, including members of several militia groups, streamed to the ranch from several Western states.
During the trial, law-enforcement officers testified about conflicting orders and described a chaotic scene of overlapping jurisdictions.
Federal agents, including National Parks police officers and rangers assigned to a regional special-operations team, acknowledged they were taking up armed positions hours after they were told to cease operations. They said they ignored orders to fire less-lethal rounds at protesters because it might spark a shooting war.
Agents mobilized with shields and dressed in combat gear were pictured in tactical positions only feet away from other officers who were standing in the open and talking.
The BLM abandoned the roundup without making a single arrest.
The standoff was hailed as a victory by militia members. Cliven Bundy's sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, cited their success at Bundy Ranch in their runup to the siege of an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016, also in protest of BLM policies. An Oregon federal jury acquitted Ammon, Ryan and five others in October.
No arrests were made in the Bundy Ranch case until after the Oregon siege ended.
Closing arguments expected Wednesday
Court will open Wednesday with the government's prosecutors giving their closing arguments.
Defendant Todd Engel of Idaho, who has represented himself in the case, is expected to be the first person to present closing arguments for the defense.
Lawyers for Lovelien and Burleson are expected to go next. They will be followed by lawyers for Parker and Steven Stewart of Idaho. The defense likely will end with arguments from the attorney for O. Scott Drexler of Idaho.
The six men are described by prosecutors in court documents as the least culpable of all 17 defendants.
Second trial looms, featuring the standoff's suspected leaders
Defendants in the second trial, which include Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and two others are considered the leaders of the standoff. All are being held at a correctional facility in Nevada.
The second trial was scheduled to begin 30 days after the end of the first.
But federal prosecutors last week filed a motion for an extension until at least June in order to prepare for the case. In court documents, prosecutors indicated they would call as many as 60 witnesses, nearly double what they called in the first trial.
One of the five defendants has asked to be tried separately from the Bundys.
Ohio right-wing internet radio broadcaster Pete Santilli said in court documents some of his co-defendants are more preoccupied with filing motions about their in-custody treatment rather than preparing for trial.
Prosecutors have accused Santilli of recruiting gunmen to the ranch, which has become known as the Battle of Bunkerville. They also say he encouraged protesters, threatened law-enforcement officers and at one point ordered the federal agent in charge of the roundup to stop.
Santilli was indicted in the Oregon siege but all charges against him were dropped before the trial started.
His Twitter account, which is still active, describes him as a "political prisoner in the state of Nevada."
MORE FROM THE TRIAL:
Agents told to stand down the day before major confrontation with protestors