Jury refuses to convict in Bundy ranch standoff

[Sunlei]

Source: Associated Press

A federal jury in Las Vegas refused Tuesday to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons in a 2014 confrontation to stop a cattle roundup near the Nevada ranch of states' rights figure Cliven Bundy.

In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

More than 30 defendants' supporters in the courtroom broke into applause after Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Lovelien and Stewart freed immediately and set Wednesday morning hearings to decide if Parker and Drexler should remain jailed pending a government decision whether to seek a third trial. A first trial earlier this year lasted two months and ended in April with a different jury finding two defendants — Gregory Burleson of Phoenix and Todd Engel of Idaho — guilty of some charges but failing to reach verdicts against Drexler, Parker, Lovelien and Stewart.

The current jury deliberated four full days after more than 20 days of testimony. The six men and six women returned no verdicts on four charges against Parker — assault on a federal officer, threatening a federal officer and two related counts of use of a firearm — and also hung on charges of assault on a federal officer and brandishing a firearm against Drexler. Navarro declared a mistrial on those counts.


Read more: https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2017/aug/22/jury-refuses-to-convict-in-bundy-ranch-standoff/

[dalton99a]

1. Figures

[RKP5637]

2. Nice precedent to set. Do what they did and hey, it's just the good old boys. n/t

[Sunlei]

5. IMO the Feds over charged, piled on & pushed in court extra charges like 'resisting arrest'.

Just like our local police, Fed police pile on the 'extra' charges because most people plea deal or don't have the means to hire a good defense.

At the local level I read recently over 98% take the plea deal to get out of jail. These four men are lucky they had good defense lawyers because the government sends a whole team.

These 4 are lower level bundy-cult followers- I don't think the higher ups will get away with much. Bundy will lose his property at the minimum.

But the Federal BLM is at fault the most, they knew this man wasn't paying the almost free lease fees to graze his cattle on OUR public lands for DECADES. They did nothing to stop 'trespass' grazers.

Even today plenty of private livestock owners trespass graze and BLM ignores them. BLM "pretends" wildlife tear up the range and ignores trample damage & waterline damage from millions of sheep and cattle.

[RKP5637]

13. Thanks for the additional insight!

[broadcaster90210]

14. This retired judge tends to agree with you.

Last edited Thu Aug 24, 2017, 01:07 PM - Edit history (1)

nt

[Sunlei]

18. yes, sometimes in the Federal courts with a proper well written case- I've seen Judges rule against

DOI/BLM. It's not easy, people spend a lifetime trying to protect OUR public lands/wildlife and public land use disputes.

Costs a fortune and takes years to bring Federal cases. Hard to find Lawyers who work pro bono. The government will bring a team of Lawyers. But sometimes the land & wildlife win one.

[joshdawg]

7. Goes without saying.....even tho' I will......

that if a group of blacks had done the same exact thing, their asses would have been behind bars long ago sitting out a 25 year sentence, or worse.
Good ol' boys, indeed.

[RKP5637]

15. In fact, they likely would have all been dead. Equality, yeah, often not! n/t

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Maybe this is what you get when most

people do their best to avoid jury duty?

I'm constantly horrified at how so many -- and that includes posts I've seen here on DU over the years -- are absolutely determined not to do jury duty. I've even know someone who has never registered to vote for fear of being summoned to a jury. Really? Never vote just in case you get the call to help the justice system? Plus, many places take the names from driver license lists.

I've gotten jury duty once, and only once and I'm now 69 years old and exactly once I my life I was called for jury duty. Alas, I didn't make the cut, mainly because the trial was expected to last about four days, and in two days we were going out of town on a long-planned vacation. And that was at least 20 years ago.

[christx30]

10. Most of us have rent to pay.

Talk to me all you want about civic responsibility, but a lot of us are living paycheck to paycheck, and even one day of lost pay can make it hard to pay bills.
I have been called for jury duty 4 times. I dread going in there because I don't want to get chosen. I've been called, and I have to report in 3 weeks. Luckily, I got it on my day off. I just pray it doesn't go beyond that. If it does, I guess I'll just not eat, so my kids can, and I can keep the lights on.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

21. Jury duty should replace lost wages.

Or employers should be required to pay employees on jury duty. This is a complex, if solvable problem.

The one time I was called, and sat through the entire voire dire, the judge immediately dismissed a man who was self-employed and said he could not afford to do jury duty, yet did not dismiss a young stay at home mom who was needing to pay fifty dollars a day for baby-sitting, and the jury duty paid something like ten or twelve dollars a day. She was in tears at the prospect of paying several hundred dollars, which she clearly did not have, for the baby-sitting. There was a real disconnect there.

Makes you wonder how other countries handle jury duty, doesn't it?

This is a bit analogous to the claim that we have the best health care system in the world. We do, only if you don't look at how other countries do their health care.

Anyway, one of the underlying questions is: why does someone get called 4 times in however many years, and I've only been called once in over 50 years?

[Judi Lynn]

4. Bitterly ugly news. Shameful. n/t

[steve2470]

6. sigh nt

[Doug the Dem]

8. Mistaken Identity

Most of the jury were Married With Children fans.

[DeminPennswoods]

9. Bet they'll be re-tried

nt

[christx30]

11. If the jury won't convict,

you can't retry them because of double jeopardy. They are free and gone forever.

[DeminPennswoods]

12. That jury didn't but another might well convict

I don't how many Dateline, 48Hours, 20/20s I've seen where the prosecutor fails a couple times, then gets a conviction. The prosecutor could also ask for a change of venue since I'm sure many westerners are familiar with the stand-off.

[MosheFeingold]

16. You can retry in the case of a "mistrial"

That is, the jury couldn't reach a verdict.

Most of this was a "not guilty." There are a handful of "mistrial" charges, but not many. So a few of them could be retried.

Speaking as a former cop turned DA, it's time for the Government to lick its wounds and move on.

[Amishman]

19. This is correct, only the weapons charges could be retried. The big stuff is off the table

Two of the four were found not guilty on all counts
Two were not guilty on conspiracy and extortion, hung jury on weapons and assault charges

The only part that can be retried are the weapons and assault charges on the second two.

[maxrandb]

20. Sorry, but the message I get is that the next time

Assholes pull something like this, send in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit

[jmowreader]

22. More like the National Guard

The Posse Comitatus Act prevents the government from sending federal troops to quell domestic insurrection.

It does NOT, however, prevent the governor from ordering the 1/221 Armored Cavalry Regiment of his National Guard to use all their artillery and mortar assets to turn Bundy's ranch into a smoking crater.

[Lurks Often]

17. It may be that the jury took offense to how the judge was handling the case

From the link (at the bottom):

"Drexler's attorney, Todd Leventhal, referred to defense teams' complaints that Navarro set such strict rules of evidence that defendants weren't able to tell why they traveled to the Bundy ranch.

The judge rejected testimony from five prospective defense witnesses, and Drexler and Parker were the only defendants to testify in their defense. However, the judge struck Parker's testimony for what she said was a deliberate failure to keep his testimony within her rules.

All four defense attorneys declined Aug. 15 to make closing arguments, a gesture of standing mute that Leventhal said may have had an effect on the jury.

"As much as we were shut down from bringing anything up, the jury saw through it," he said.