Judge declares mistrial in Cliven Bundy case, citing suppressed evidence

LAS VEGAS – A federal judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial in the criminal case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and three others for their role in a 2014 armed standoff with U.S. government agents, and rebuked prosecutors for withholding evidence from the defense.

Bundy, two of his sons and another man were charged with 15 counts of conspiracy, assault and other offenses stemming from the confrontation, which galvanized right-wing militia groups challenging federal authority over vast tracts of public lands in the American West.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro told federal prosecutors they had willfully violated evidence rules in failing to turn over pertinent documents to the defense, adding that "the failure is prejudicial" to ensuring a fair trial.

The ruling came a month after prosecutors began presenting their case to a federal court jury in Las Vegas.

[Jury acquits Ammon, Ryan Bundy in takeover of Oregon wildlife refuge]

Navarro had warned prosecutors last week that she might declare a mistrial after listing documents previously undisclosed by prosecutors that could be used to impugn government witnesses or bolster defendants' arguments that they felt surrounded by government snipers before the standoff.

In a stinging rebuke on Wednesday, Navarro said prosecutors knew or should have known of the existence of memos from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that might have been helpful to the defense.

Those memos and other documents, some 3,300 pages in all, were not turned over until well after an Oct. 1 deadline, and then only after repeated efforts by Bundy's defense counsel, Navarro said.

Defense attorneys have long argued the Bundy family felt threatened by government "snipers" positioned on a hill above their ranch.

Navarro set a retrial date for Feb. 26, 2018, but whether a new trial will occur is uncertain. Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre said prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the case. Even if they do, defense lawyers will argue for the charges to be dismissed altogether at a hearing set for Jan. 8.

Bundy's attorney, Bret Whipple, said the judge's decision sent a clear message to prosecutors that the case should be dismissed.

"I think we have a very strong case that this will never be tried again," Whipple said.

UPROAR OVER CATTLE

The April 2014 revolt at the heart of the trial was sparked by a court-ordered roundup of Bundy's cattle by agents of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management after Bundy had refused for two decades to pay fees required to graze his herds on federal property.

Hundreds of supporters, many of them heavily armed, answered Bundy's public pleas for support and rallied from all over the country to his ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada, about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas, in a show of force to demand that his impounded livestock be returned.

Police and government agents, vastly outgunned, ultimately retreated rather than risk bloodshed, and no shots were fired.

Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy and co-defendant Ryan Payne, a Montana resident prosecutors linked to a militia group called Operation Mutual Aid, have cast the uprising as an act of patriotic civil disobedience against government excess.

"I don't believe there's a jury in this country that would convict us," Ammon Bundy said after the hearing, adding, "I believe that God has favored us."

Prosecutors contend Bundy, 71, and his followers were defying the rule of law by threat of violence, rather than engaging in an act of legal protest. The most serious counts the defendants face carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy were acquitted last year, along with five other people, in a separate conspiracy case arising from a six-week armed occupation early last year of a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon by a group of activists protesting federal land management.

A would-be fifth defendant in the Nevada case, internet blogger and radio host Peter Santilli Jr., pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to conspiracy and faces a possible six-year prison term.

Six lesser-known participants in the Nevada showdown went on trial earlier this year. Two were found guilty; one of them received a prison term of 68 years, while the other awaits sentencing. Two more pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for a maximum one-year prison term.

Yet another group of six defendants from the Bunkerville standoff, including two other Bundy sons, Dave and Mel Bundy, were due to stand trial after the Cliven Bundy case concludes. One of them, Micah McGuire, pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer. He faces up to six years in prison when sentenced.