The U.S. Attorney At The Heart of The Hammond Family Problem

The Last Refuge – by sundance

The media are focused on the “Bundy Militia” angle to the standoff in Burns Oregon, where Aamon Bundy and brothers have taken over a Malheur Wildlife Refuge Headquarters to draw attention to the plight of the Hammond family (Full Complex Back Story Here).

However, a little research (HatTip NeverTooLate) into the original legal battle reveals a rather startling update.  

Aamon Bundy (left) – Hammond Family (right)

The initial, and regarded by many as overreaching, federal prosecution resulted in a federal court judge Michael Hogan assigning a 3-month sentence and 1-year sentence for Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr (73) and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond (46) respectively.

Even federal Judge Hogan stated the prosecution under “terrorism statutes” itself was an overreach and he refused to assign ridiculously high sentences for behavior that almost every rancher has conducted for generations.

Those sentences were fulfilled by the father an son duo in 2013 with Steven Hammond exiting prison in January 2014.   However, it was a decision by the U.S Attorney for the State of Oregon, Amanda Marshall, who called for an appeal to the original sentencing:

“Amanda Marshall: Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon. Marshall recommended that the federal government challenge the Hammonds’ original prison sentences. By law, the convictions come with mandatory five-year sentences, but U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in 2012 balked at the punishment and instead sentenced Dwight Hammond to three months and Steven Hammond to one year.

Marshall called Hogan’s punishments “unlawful.” The solicitor general authorized a rare appeal of an Oregon judge’s order. The appeals court sided with the prosecution, and the Hammonds returned to federal court last year to face a second sentencing. At that hearing, U.S. Chief District Judge Ann Aiken ordered the pair to finish five-year terms.” (link)

So what would prompt U.S. Attorney for the Sate of Oregon Ms Amanda Marshall to file such a “rare” appeal? And, what motivation might lay behind her intentions?

A review of Amanda Marshall reveals some rather disturbing facts.

First, she was an Obama appointee.  A very left-wing activist appointee who took office October 7th 2011.  Marshall had no experience at all as a federal prosecutor before being given the job as a U.S. Attorney for Oregon.

Marshall was plucked from a child advocacy legal job inside the Oregon Department of Justice. [Pay attention to this little “child advocacy aspect” because it might play a larger role later on.] Before that, she served as a deputy district attorney in Coos County.  Why?  Apparently it was because the White House wanted a woman for the job.

She lived in a commune and her life-history, all the way back to a childhood with an activist mom, is a representative story of how a liberal moonbat is created:

[2012]  Marshall’s a bit of an outsider — having no prior experience in the federal system — and they know little about her.

So it may surprise them to learn Marshall spent part of her childhood in a commune, watched a Super Bowl at Grace Slick’s house, hung out backstage at Grateful Dead concerts, sang and danced for years in a small-town community theater and — as a young prosecutor in Coos County — carried a 9 mm pistol to crime scenes because, as she recently noted, “That’s how we rolled in the Coos.”

Marshall, 42, would be the first to acknowledge — with all deference to the Grateful Dead — that hers has been a long, strange trip indeed.

The past two years alone, as she ascended from a little-known supervisor in the child advocacy section of the Oregon Department of Justice to a corner office in the venerable Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, was a grinding, sometimes demoralizing affair with a dash of political controversy.  (read more)

You really have to read the whole story, including her sisters arrest on drug charges, her estranged family and how her own daughter views her as eccentric to get the full scope of the person who was in charge of a “Childs Advocacy Section” and then later became U.S. Attorney for the state of Oregon.   You really have to read it all.

But wait, it gets better.

After winning the sentencing appeal – In May of 2015 activist Amanda Marshall stepped down from her job as U.S. Attorney for Oregon, citing “health concerns“.

A very strange sketchy exit to use the reasoning “Health Concerns” because she was under internal (Office of Inspector General ) investigation of her for “stalking” a co-worker U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin:

[2015]  The prosecutor that U.S. Attorney for Oregon Amanda Marshallis accused of stalking was at the time under 24-hour-a-day armed protective guard because of a contract Mexican drug dealers placed on his life.

That news adds a bizarre turn in a situation that appears to have cost Marshall, the top federal prosecutor in Oregon, her job.

Sources familiar with the situation tell WW Marshall’s subordinate, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin, filed a hostile workplace environment complaint against Marshall after receiving numerous unwanted text and email messages from her, and after she followed him outside working hours.

At the time, federal agents were protecting Kerin against a credible threat on his life. Such precautions are rare, according to people familiar with the U.S. attorney’s office. Kerin’s wife, Michelle, is also a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office.  (read more)

You just can’t make this stuff up folks.

[Another Article] Marshall fell under an internal review in March 2015 by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General for what has been described as erratic behavior involving a subordinate. Sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she had constantly texted and emailed Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott M. Kerin, at one point admonishing him for spending too much time with a woman who was not his wife. (link)

And another article highlighting the instability of Amanda Marshall:

[2015] The U.S. Justice Department is investigating a possible inappropriate relationship between Amanda Marshall, the U.S. Attorney in Oregon, and a subordinate in her office. Marshall announced Thursday that she was taking a leave of absence for health reasons.

Investigators from the Office of the Inspector General are looking into the relationship of Marshall and assistant U.S. Attorney Scott M. Kerin. Investigators were inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland for the last two weeks.

The exact nature of the relationship between Marshall and Kerin is unclear.

Multiple sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Kerin tried to break off that relationship. They said he grew concerned enough at Marshall’s reaction that he reported it to his Justice Department superiors.

Marshall was reportedly driving by his home and sending multiple texts, including several she sent telling him she knew what he was doing at the time.

[…]  This is a crucial time in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Oregon, which investigates and prosecutes federal crimes. The office is leading a sweeping influence-peddling investigation of former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his companion, Cylvia Hayes.

Marshall was the surprise choice to replace interim U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton in 2010. She had no experience as a federal prosecutor. Rather, she was plucked from a child advocacy legal job inside the Oregon Department of Justice. Before that, she served as a deputy district attorney in Coos County.  (read more)

Now here is where an actual boots-on-the-ground reporter is needed.  You might remember from the full story of the Hammonds a part about a disturbed grandson/nephew Dusty Hammond being called to testify against them:

(o) Federal attorneys, Frank Papagni, hunted down a witness who was not mentally capable to be credible.  Dusty Hammond (grandson and nephew) testified that Steven told him to start a fire. He was 13-years-old at the time, and 24-years-old when he testified (11 years later).

At 24 Dusty had been suffering with mental problems for many years. He had estranged his family including his mother. Judge Hogan noted that Dusty’s memories as a 13-year-old boy were not clear or credible.

However, Judge Hogan allowed the prosecution to continually use Dusty’s testimony. When speaking to the Hammonds about this testimony, they understood Dusty was manipulated and expressed nothing but love for their troubled grandson. (more)

Given the nature of Amanda Marshall’s prior job in Child’s Legal Advocacy, and given the facts of Dusty Hammond having prior issues and welfare, what are the odds that U.S. Attorney Marshall carried some additional intentions with her as she took office and made the decision to appeal the earlier-served sentences and push for more punishment?

The scope of ridiculously extreme prosecution in this case would surely point to something far more personal in nature.

UNBELIEVABLE Update – Oregon “Bundy Militia” Standoff – The U.S. Attorney At The Heart of The Hammond Family Problem…