TRUTH HOUND NOTE: Breaking News from Associated Press. Excerpt below. Separate Truth Hound story coming soon.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The leaders of an armed group who seized a national wildlife refuge in rural Oregon were acquitted Thursday in the 41-day standoff that brought new attention to a long-running dispute over control of federal lands in the U.S. West.
Tumult erupted in the courtroom after the verdicts were read when an attorney for group leader Ammon Bundy demanded his client be immediately released, repeatedly yelling at the judge. U.S. marshals tackled attorney Marcus Mumford to the ground, used a stun gun on him several times and arrested him.
U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said she could not release Bundy because he still faces charges in Nevada stemming from an armed standoff at his father Cliven Bundy’s ranch two years ago.
The jury found Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy and several others not guilty of possessing a firearm in a federal facility and conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland where the trial took place.
The Bundys were expected to stand trial in Nevada early next year. Authorities rounded up cattle at their father’s ranch in 2014 because of unpaid grazing fees but released the animals as they faced armed protesters.
To read more go to this link.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/jury-acquits-leaders-oregon-standoff-federal-charges-233338338.html