Key figure in refuge standoff seeks to withdraw guilty plea - #BundyTeaParty

[struggle4progress]

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016
By Steven DuBois
The Associated Press

Ryan Payne, 33, of Anaconda, Mont., admitted in July that he conspired with others to prevent Interior Department employees from doing their jobs ­during the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildfire Refuge.

In a plea deal that included talks with prosecutors in Nevada, the U.S. attorney’s office in Oregon recommended that Payne’s likely 3½-year prison sentence run at the same time as the punishment he could receive for his role in a 2014 standoff with federal agents at a Nevada ranch owned by Cliven Bundy. That was expected to be seven years to 12 years in prison.

But public defender Rich ­Federico said in court papers filed on ­Wednesday that the Nevada plea was only in draft format.

Talks broke down, he said, and the offer is no longer available. “On the date he entered a guilty plea in Oregon, had Mr. Payne known all the terms of the deal in Nevada, he would not have signed the deal in Oregon,” Federico wrote ...

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/34889410-75/key-figure-in-refuge-standoff-seeks-to-withdraw-guilty-plea.html.csp

[struggle4progress]

1. Ryan Payne wants to withdraw guilty plea

By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on October 13, 2016 at 5:00 AM, updated October 13, 2016 at 8:11 AM

... Prosecutors said Payne made ultimatums to Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward in November, seeking to prevent Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven Hammond from returning to federal prison on arson convictions, and led tactical training during the occupation of the Malheur refuge. In Nevada, he's accused of organizing "armed protection'' in the 2014 standoff over the impounding of rancher Cliven Bundy's cattle ...

He pleaded guilty to the federal charge of conspiracy in Oregon, and a second count, possession of firearms in a federal facility, was dismissed, under the negotiated plea. The Oregon sentence was to run concurrently with his Nevada sentence.

Under an offer then pending in the Nevada case, Payne would have pleaded guilty to three charges, including the use and carrying of a firearm in a crime of violence -- a count that brings a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years. Prosecutors there were going to recommend a 12-year sentence, but Payne could argue for seven years, according to prosecutors and his lawyers.

On the date Payne signed the Oregon plea agreement, he wasn't fully aware of the specifics of the Nevada plea offer -- still "only in a draft format,'' Federico wrote in his motion ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/10/oregon_standoff_defendant_ryan.html

[struggle4progress]

2. Ryan Payne Asks Judge To Withdraw His Guilty Plea

by Conrad Wilson Follow OPB | Oct. 12, 2016 10:42 p.m. | Updated: Oct. 13, 2016 6:37 a.m. | Portland

... “I plead guilty, your honor,” Payne told Judge Brown on July 19.

Payne told Brown during the hearing that he joined the military and swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.

“I traveled to Harney County, here in Oregon, under the pretense that this was my intent. That I was coming to uphold and defend the Constitution,” Payne said at the July plea hearing, according to a transcription in Frederico’s filing.

“In pursuing that effort, I understand I — I have come to understand that folks who were — who work for the Government, that that Constitution ordained, perceived my actions as threatening or intimidating,” the filing quoted Payne. “And, thereby, I — I understand myself to have been guilty of the charge that I’m charged with” ...

http://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/ryan-payne-oregon-standoff-guilty-plea-withdraw-nevada/

[Ohio Dem]

3. Thanks again for posting these.

DU is the only place I hear anything about these idiots, and you are doing a terrific job, bringing these items here. Thank you, SFP.