Freedom Outpost – by Tim Brown
One man that stood in Oregon at the Malfeur Wildlife Refuge, Blaine Cooper, has made a plea bargain concerning his role at the refuge.
Deb Jordan with The Pete Santilli Show reports:
On Wednesday – July 6th – before the monthly planning session in Judge Anna Brown’s Courtroom, Blaine Cooper explained to Ammon Bundy and others – that he was struggling to make the right decision concerning a GLOBAL plea deal his attorney had hammered out with Oregon and Nevada Prosecutors. Cooper’s lawyer, Krista Shipsey asked that his co-defendants and others respect his choice, but co-defendants say – she really didn’t have say it.
Mr. Cooper told his co-defendants that part of his struggle was – He just wanted to get it over with, get on with his life, and get this all behind him; but he also didn’t want them to be disappointed with his decision. Unlike Brian Cavalier, the man who just plead guilty in the last couple of weeks, Cooper’s plea deal does not seem to be based on cooperation with the government, leaving many to speculate that being the reason his sentence is so high in Nevada.
In the end they all agreed that Mr. Cooper should do what was best for “him” and that – “whatever that was” – they would understand. Although some co-defendants were caught off guard by how quickly he made the final decision after their talk, they still said they had to respect his willingness to tell them before he did it.
“If there is any good to be found in this plea deal, it does signal Nevada is willing to cut deals with some of these guys who have been convicted of felonies in the past, and that is good for attorneys and their clients to know; especially if they are leaning toward possibly going that route,” said Tom Coan, attorney for Pete Santilli.
At least one co-defendant gave credit for Cooper for not working with the prosecution against them.
“At least he had the balls to tell us to our face what he was thinking of doing – You have to give the guy credit for that. No matter what happens in the end we can at least say – Blaine Cooper didn’t make some back room deal to throw us all under the bus like some of these other guys did – at least he told us first.”
Still, there are attorneys that are working on the Bundy Ranch case of other defendants who believe that Cooper acted too soon. They claim that because motion hearings have not begun yet that “some of these charges will fall away like they did in Oregon.”
“It’s just too early to make a deal that puts you in prison for six years when there are still so many unknowns,” said one of the defense attorneys.
Cooper has been blasted on social media, at times thought to be a mole and conspirator against those who stood in Oregon and that, combined with his imprisonment weighed heavily on him.
When you plead innocent or guilty to the charges, you perfect the courts jurisdiction over you.