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The next chapter in the Bundy family legal saga is set to unfold this February in a Nevada courtroom, where federal prosecutors will begin laying out a complicated conspiracy case against 17 anti-government activists caught up in the 2014 armed standoff with FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents over the failed seizure of Cliven Bundy's cattle.
But in a new twist, the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas will try the least culpable defendants — dubbed by the government as "gunmen-followers" — starting Feb. 6 before taking on the Bundy patriarch and his sons Ammon and Ryan. The brothers were acquitted in October on charges arising from their leadership of the Oregon wildlife refuge occupation.
In a scheduling order released Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Peggy Leen grouped the 17 defendants into three tiers as part of a complex calculus aimed at balancing witness safety, judicial efficiency and the defendants' rights to a fair and speedy trial.
The Tier 1 group features the alleged ringleaders of the confrontation outside Bunkerville, Nev., and its aftermath: The three Bundys; Montana militia activist Ryan Payne, who had pleaded guilty in the Malheur case; and right-wing radio host Pete Santilli. Charged in all 16 counts outlined in the indictment, they will go on trial a month after the Tier 3 defendants' trial concludes.
The government alleges they organized and led "a massive armed assault against federal law enforcement officers to threaten, intimidate and extort the officers into abandoning approximately 400 head of cattle owned by Cliven Bundy."
The Tier 2 group includes the alleged "mid-level leaders": Younger Bundy brothers Dave and Mel Bundy, Joseph O'Shaughnessy, Brian Cavalier, Jason Woods and Micah McGuire. These defendants go trial a month after the alleged organizers' trial ends.
The Tier 3 members, the first to be tried under Leen's scheduling order, are Ricky Lovelien, Todd Engel, Gregory Burleson, Eric Parker, O. Scott Drexler, and Steven Stewart. The judge noted these men are not accused of being involved in the overall conspiracy or participating in the armed encampments following the standoff's climax April 12, 2014, when federal officers stood down as gunmen allegedly assumed sniper positions all around them.
Cliven Bundy initially wanted his trial severed so he wouldn't be found guilty by association with the others. His lawyers argued he never carried a gun during the standoff, never threatened any officers or pointed weapons at them, and was at home 7 miles away when his supporters took back his cattle. Nor did he play an organizing role when hundreds of cowboys and militia members converged on his ranch. The standoff resulted from a "spontaneous outpouring of support," Cliven claimed.
Prosecutors estimated that trying each defendant separately could take 17 months and field a lot of duplicate testimony. Trying them all together would require a trial lasting up to six months. The government would call 60 to 75 witnesses, each of whom would be subject to cross-examination by every defense lawyer, potentially extending the length of the trial.
Striking a middle ground, Judge Leen agreed with a government proposal to stage three trials, grouping the defendants who shared similar levels of culpability.