“It is much more than a protest,” Ammon Bundy wrote on Facebook, two days before he and a group of people led an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. It would last 41 days.
Twenty-six people have been indicted in connection with the takeover. Nine have pleaded guilty. A 10th — Joseph O’Shaugnessy — pleaded guilty on Monday morning.
O’Shaughnessy appeared in federal court in Portland to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to impede federal employees from doing their work.
It is part of a plea deal that will also settle charges against him in Nevada where he is charged in connection with the 2014 standoff with Bureau of Land Management officers at Bunkerville who were trying to impound cattle belonging to Cliven Bundy, father of Ammon and Ryan.
When O’Shaugnessy is sentenced in Oregon in December, it’s expected that he will receive 12-15 months in prison that will be served at the same time as the six years that he is expected to receive in Nevada.
O’Shaughnessy, who is known as “Captain,” helped provide security at the refuge, though he maintains he never spent a night there. He said he agreed with the protesters’ message but not the takeover of the refuge.
The remaining 16 people are scheduled to go on trial in two separate groups — one starting Sept. 7 and the other group on Feb. 14, 2017.
O’Shaughnessy is one of seven people charged in both Oregon and Nevada. He is the fourth to plead guilty.
In preparation for the September trial — against Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan, Shawna Cox, Pete Santilli, David Fry, Jeff Banta, Kennth Medenbach and Neil Wampler — prosecutors on Friday filed documents previewing their case.
“Through their combined efforts, these men and women would steadily fortify their hold on the property, as its employees stayed away in fear,” prosecutors wrote.
These efforts, say prosecutors, included: replacing Fish and Wildlife Service signs with their own; taking over the kitchen; sleeping in the bunkhouse; driving Refuge-owned vehicles; breaking into safes; stealing gas; attempting to access employee computers; using heavy equipment to build a road; building a bunker; and digging a trench that they filled with trash.
Prosecutors say that to “fortify their hold on the Refuge, defendants also set up military style teams to enforce security. They placed armed guards in a tower on the property, armed guards at the front and rear gates, and had armed teams patrolling different parts of the Refuge.”
“We have a lot of work to be able to unwind the unconstitutional land transactions that have taken place here,” Ammon Bundy is quoted as having said on Jan. 4.
The takeover of the refuge was felt in the nearby town of Burns, where school was canceled as well as other events.
“Meanwhile, many local residents were harassed and felt threatened because of the increased militia presence in Burns that was brought about by the occupation,” prosecutors write.
“And while there is no dispute that some residents supported the goals of the occupation, defendants’ presence was fundamentally disruptive to the community.”
While the takeover finally ended after 41 days, prosecutors say that several main buildings on the refuge remain unusable.
The filing by prosecutors indicates that they plan to take the jury back to Nov. 5, 2015 when Ammon Bundy and and Ryan Payne met with Harney County Sheriff David Ward.
The two wanted Ward to make sure that he prevented two local ranchers — Darryl and Steven Hammond — from having to go to jail.
Bundy insisted that Ward had a constitutional duty to stand up to federal officials and if he chose not to do that “we will bring thousands of people here to do job for you.”
Prosecutors admit that Bundy and the others had a right to protest what was happening to the Hammonds but said the First Amendment does not provide a defense “to words or actions that incite imminent criminal activity.”
They will take jurors to Jan. 2 when Ammon told people in the parking lot of the Safeway in Burns to follow him “to make a hard stand.”
He then led a convoy to the refuge, which they took over. The next day he told reporters that they would use the refuge as a base for patriots and that he anticipated it lasting several years.
Prosecutors plan to show jurors how Pete Santilli posted hundreds of pages of Bureau of Land Management paperwork stolen from an office at the refuge online.
They will tell jurors how Shawna Cox told investigators that those who had taken over the refuge were prepared to use weapons against government agents from entering the refuge.
Prosecutors also included a list of 674 exhibits that they plan to introduce at trail including:
Guns, ammunition, photos, text messages between some of the defendants, Facebook posts by many of the defendants, interviews some of the defendants gave to reporters, signs, video of defendants firing weapons, and Ammon Bundy’s notes of what each person was responsible for.
http://patch.com/oregon/portland/oregon-standoff-latest-tenth-defendant-set-plead-guilty
“Twenty-six people have been indicted in connection with the takeover. Nine have pleaded guilty. A 10th — Joseph O’Shaugnessy — pleaded guilty on Monday morning.”
They’re ALL guilty…
… of gross STUPIDITY, if nothing else.