4 holdout occupiers at OR wildlife refuge are indicted

Shawna Cox, one of the 16 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupiers indicted for conspiracy, has again asked a judge to allow her to attend a funeral for Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.

The group’s leader, Ammon Bundy, and 15 other people “prevented federal officials from performing their official duties by force, threats and intimidation”, according to a sealed indictment filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of OR and unsealed Thursday.

Authorities consider Ammon Bundy the OR takeover’s leader.

The standoff began January 2, with the group demanding the federal government turn public lands over to local control and free two ranchers imprisoned for setting fires.

The charge, a felony, carries a maximum six-year prison sentence as well as potential fines.

The funeral for the man killed by law enforcement during the armed takeover of an OR wildlife refuge is expected to draw supporters from around the West to a small Utah town. They aren’t leaving until they are reassured they will not be arrested, and that doesn’t seem likely to happen.

The deadly confrontation with police took place as Finicum and other protesters were driving to a meeting in a nearby town on a rural stretch of OR highway.

Bundy said he is in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and hasn’t spoken yet to his father, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who sent a letter to the Harney County sheriff Monday saying “We the People” will retain possession of the refuge.

Preserves throughout the USA have also been placed on a heightened alert. “This will allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation and [Oregon State Police] to also go home and end their armed occupation of Burns and Harney County”.

“You will get a copy of the indictment in due course, don’t worry”, Stewart said.

Four other people remain on the federal property as of Thursday. They are David Fry, 27, of Blanchester, Ohio; Jeff Banta, 46, of Elko, Nevada; and Sean Anderson, 48, and Sandy Anderson, 47, a married couple from Riggins, Idaho.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Portland on Wednesday and unsealed on Thursday, supersedes an earlier criminal complaint in the case.

Ten of them, including Bundy and his brother, Ryan, appeared for a detention hearing to determine whether they would be released on bail.