Ammon and Ryan Bundy remain in jail after their attorney was tackled and tased for screaming for the release of the two brothers after a jury acquitted them of charges connected with the armed takeover of a federal office building Oregon.
U.S. marshals tackled attorney Marcus Mumford to the ground, used a stun gun on him several times and was eventually arrested him for yelling at the judge to release the Bundy brothers.
District Judge Anna Brown said Ammon Bundy couldn’t be released because he still faces charges in Nevada for his part in an armed standoff at his father’s ranch two years ago.
Ammon and Ryan are the sons of rancher Cliven Bundy, who gained fame in 2014 for engaging in an armed standoff in Nevada with the BLM over changes to cattle grazing rules. Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are among those who are to go on trial in Nevada next year for their part in that standoff.
A jury acquitted the brothers Thursday of federal conspiracy and weapons charges connected with the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon.
The defendants, along with five other members of their militia, never denied occupying the building in January in a bold move to force the federal government to surrender 188,000-acre property to local control.
The case was viewed as open-and-shut, but Ammon’s attorney argued that prosecutors are unable to prove the group engaged in an illegal conspiracy prohibiting federal workers at the refuge from doing their jobs. Ryan acted as his own attorney.
The group said they never intended to stop public employees but simply wanted the land and the buildings. Ammon and his fellow defendants argued the takeover was an act of civil disobedience against a rogue federal government.
The militia members, who were heavily armed at the time of the occupation, claimed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) created a series of regulations designed specifically to drive them off their land.
Prosecutors gathered troves of evidence to present their case. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found at compound after the standoff had cleared.
Authorities charged 26 occupiers with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, and seven other defendants chose to have their trial rescheduled to begin Feb. 14.
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