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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2017
Feds stumble again with split
verdict in Bundy standoff case
Two found guilty,
mistrial for four
other defendants
AP Photo/John Locher
Supporters raise a flag outside of the federal courthouse on Monday in Las Vegas. A
jury found two men guilty of federal charges in an armed standoff that stopped federal
agents from rounding up cattle near Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in 2014. Jurors said
they were deadlocked on charges against four other men.
‘The only thing more
powerful than the U.S.
government is a fair
and impartial jury.’
Bret Whipple
Cliven Bundy’s attorney
assault-style rifles to the stand-
off near Bunkerville.
When government agents
backed down and states’ rights
advocates declared victory, it
reverberated in areas where
Bundy is admired for declar-
ing that property belongs to the
people, not the government in
Washington, D.C.
Myhre had characterized
the six as the least culpable of
the 17 to be tried in the case,
and their trial was seen as a
test-run of a key conspiracy
charge alleging that Bundy
and his two eldest sons headed
a conspiracy to wage a “range
war” against the government.
The outcome echoed an
Oregon case, where a fed-
eral jury last year acquitted
Ammon and Ryan Bundy and
five other defendants of all
charges related to a 41-day
occupation of a U.S. wildlife
refuge — including that they
conspired to impede federal
officers from doing their work.
In Las Vegas, one conspir-
acy count alleges a plan was
made to commit an offense
against the United States, and
that defendants then took part
in it. A second count alleges
that conspirators agreed to
impede and injure a federal
law enforcement officer.
“The only thing more pow-
erful than the U.S. government
is a fair and impartial jury,”
Cliven Bundy’s attorney, Bret
Whipple, declared Monday.
“This gives us confidence that
the primary witnesses against
him are of limited value.”
Whipple noted that it took
two years to bring charges in
the Bunkerville case and three
years to bring it to trial, which
took two months. The govern-
ment presented 35 witnesses,
including police officers and
federal agents who sometimes
became emotional describ-
ing fears that they wouldn’t
make it home from the stand-
off alive.
famously photographed lying
on a freeway overpass during
the standoff, looking with his
AK-47-style rifle through a
seam in a concrete barrier
toward heavily armed federal
agents guarding a cattle corral
below.
The agents had been enforc-
ing court orders to get Bundy
cattle off public lands for his
refusal to pay grazing fees.
But Parker testified he
came to Nevada from Idaho
with friends and co-defendants
Drexler and Stewart after see-
ing accounts of Bundy fam-
ily members met with police
dogs, knocked down, stun-
gunned and arrested in earlier
scuffles with federal agents.
He was asked by pros-
ecutor Nicholas Dickinson
about comments he made
on the overpass about need-
ing to “keep matching the
show of force” against federal
authorities.
“Just like Cliven Bundy
told you to do, correct?” Dick-
inson asked.
“Nobody told us to do any-
thing, sir,” Parker answered.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
A a rainbow arc fills the sky and spreads across Elliott
Bay and downtown Seattle. The National Weather Ser-
vice says the city has measured 44.7 inches of rain in
the city between October and so far in April. That makes
it the wettest such period since records began in 1895.
Soggy Seattle lives up to
name, breaks rain record
SEATTLE — Soggy
Seattle has broken another
rainfall record.
The city measured 44.7
inches of rain between Octo-
ber and April, making it the
wettest such period since
records began in 1895, the
National Weather Service in
Seattle said.
It marks the second year
in the row that the city has
topped the historic rainfall
record for that period.
With several days left to
go this month, this year’s
record will likely be pad-
ded some more, said Mike
McFarland, a meteorologist
Cattle fight
$
The six defense teams pro-
vided four witnesses, includ-
ing Parker. He was the only
defendant to testify. He was
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“This has been a terri-
ble winter. It was just wet.
There’s no way around that,”
he said Tuesday.
The previous record was
44.5 inches of rain for the
October 2015 to April 2016
period. The normal amount
of rain during that period is
usually 30.9 inches.
In the Pacific Northwest,
cold-weather systems move
through the region with
dry breaks in between but
McFarland said “we’re miss-
ing those breaks.”
Last winter’s storm season
was notable for back to back
weather systems that were
slightly wetter and warmer
than normal, McFarland said.
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
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Split verdict
It wasn’t immediately
clear whether the trial for
Cliven Bundy and his sons
will be pushed back. Defense
attorneys and family mem-
bers complain that they have
already been in federal cus-
tody and away from their fam-
ilies for more than a year.
The split verdict was a set-
back for the government in a
case where evidence clearly
showed the six men brought
bel, who practices osteo-
pathic medicine.
Paul Mitchell, the com-
munity outreach man-
ager at Columbia Memo-
rial, declined to comment.
The hospital typically does
not comment on pending
litigation.
Matthew Andersen, a
Longview,
Washington,
attorney, is representing
Mitchell. The suit alleges
Leibel failed to use the
degree of care, skill and dil-
igence ordinarily expected of
doctors during the June 2015
surgery.
“Basically, it took three
procedures to get it fixed,”
Andersen said.
By DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
A Cowlitz County, Wash-
ington, woman has filed a
$558,000 medical malprac-
tice lawsuit against Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital,
claiming a doctor perforated
and failed to repair her blad-
der during vaginal mesh sur-
gery in 2015.
Grace Mitchell is seeking
$58,000 in medical expenses
and $500,000 in noneco-
nomic damages for incapac-
ity, pain and other trauma.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday
in Circuit Court, names the
hospital and Dr. David Lei-
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Govern-
ment prosecutors stumbled
again Monday in a bid to gain
convictions of armed protest-
ers in a case arising from skir-
mishes in a decades-old battle
over control of public lands in
the western United States.
A federal jury in Las Vegas
found two gunmen guilty of
some charges in a 2014 armed
standoff that stopped federal
agents from enforcing court
orders and confiscating cows
belonging to Cliven Bundy
from public rangeland near
his Nevada ranch and melon
farm.
But the same jury dead-
locked on charges against four
other defendants, prompting
the judge to declare a mistrial
and schedule a new trial June
26 — the same day 70-year-
old Cliven Bundy, sons
Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and
two other alleged conspiracy
leaders are set to be tried.
“They split our way, any-
where from 10-2 to 7-5, not
guilty,” Jess Marchese, attor-
ney for defendant Eric Parker,
said after prosecutors and
defense lawyers met behind
closed doors with the judge
and several jurors to talk about
the case.
Acting Nevada U.S. Attor-
ney Steven Myhre and three
other prosecutors in the case
didn’t immediately respond to
messages.
“Intent. They said the gov-
ernment did not prove intent,”
Todd Leventhal, attorney
for Scott Drexler, said of the
jurors. “They felt there was a
lot of evidence that didn’t go
anywhere.”
The jury also failed to
agree on guilt or innocence
for Richard Lovelien of Okla-
homa and Montana, and Ste-
ven Stewart of Idaho.
Gregory Burleson of Phoe-
nix was found guilty of eight
counts, including assault and
threats against federal agents
and extortion — crimes of
violence carrying the possi-
bility of 57 years of manda-
tory prison time at sentencing
July 26. His attorney, Terrence
Jackson, said Burleson will
appeal.
Todd Engel of Idaho was
convicted of obstruction and
traveling across state lines in
aid of extortion. He could face
up to 30 years in prison at sen-
tencing July 27.
Woman sues hospital
over troubled surgery
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