150 Militia Take Over Makhuer National Wildlife Preserve Headquarters

[monty]

Todd Macfaralne's recap of Day 15 of the Malheur Protest trial

http://rangefire.us/2016/09/29/ongoi...-defense-case/


DAY 15 — Wednesday 5, 2016
Where to even begin with today’s recap. It was a pretty ugly day in the Oregon Standoff Trial — or great entertainment — depending on your perspective, with multiple yelling matches between Attorney Marcus

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Mumford and Judge Anna Brown. At one point Judge Brown actually stood up and roared at Mumford to sit down, shut up, and knock-off the “theatrics,” at which point they had an argument about whether or not it was theatrics. If it was theatrics, Mumford might not win any acting awards, but Judge Brown’s performance might not score well in the “judicial decorum” category either. For lighter, though obviously slanted “take” on the proceedings, we highly recommend Bundy Court Sketches on Facebook.

Once once again, with all this courtroom pageantry in mind, I’m going to make another pitch for greater judicial transparency, including live-streaming court proceedings. Everyone with any kind of interest in the Oregon Standoff Trial would benefit from being able to watch the proceedings today. We all deserve to know about about how the judicial system really “works.” It was true judicial theater.

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Mumford spent much of the day frustrated at Judge Brown’s inconsistent rulings on the evidence he wished to present. She had said that Ammon Bundy can testify about his intentions and state of mind in occupying MNWR, and the things that influenced his intentions and state of mind. But today when Ammon Bundy made references to scriptures, and attempted to read them so that the jurors would know exactly what had influenced his thinking, Judge Brown ruled that he was not allowed to read scripture in the court room. This was a very peculiar ruling, as if having a witness cite scripture was the functional equivalent of having the Ten Commandments on display at the courthouse.

She had allowed him to show videos and photographs depicting the events that influenced his thinking, and to testify about hearsay statements from others, including local ranchers, but for some reason scripture was out-of-bounds and off-limts. Later, she made similar rulings with respect to additional videos shot at the Refuge with Ammon talking to local ranchers about their concerns, and about conversations he had had with the Hammonds where they expressed concern to him about their own safety, as well as his, based purely on the fact that they were communicating with him. The court’s inconsistent evidentiary ruliings resulted in multiple heated exchanges with Attorney Mumford, and at one point he threatened to file another motion for mistrial, after which Judge Brown relented, reconsidering some of the evidence he had requested to present, and ultimately did allow part of it to come in. This would indicate that Judge Brown herself knows that she is on thin ice with some

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of her rulings. A majority of the most testy moments occurred outside the presence of the jury in evidentiary hearings about the admissibiliy of evidence, which consumed a fair amount of time, and Attorney Mumford stated that he and his team had been working around the clock to consolidate and pare down the evidence as much as possible.

When the jury was present and Ammon Bundy was on the stand, he testified that he felt directed by God to take possession of the Refuge, but one of his primary intentions was to stake a claim for adverse possession at the Refuge. He said that is why they took physical possession, and tried to meet the criteria of open, adverse, possession and use. That is why they had the signs changed, and sought to change the P.O. box and utlitity accounts. That’s why they sought to clean-up and fix-up the place. They had guns so that they would be taken seriously, and to defend their position and possession of the Refuge. He said at the time he believed what they were doing was legal, completely legal, and “I still believe today that what we did was the right thing,” at which point the prosecution objected, Judge Brown issued a revised instruction to the jury, and there was another argument about who was able to say what was legal and what wasn’t. Clearly, the prosecution only wants Judge Brown to be able to say what is lawful and what isn’t. On the other hand, Ammon Bundy is supposed to be able to testify as to his understanding and state of mind.

After the jury was excused for the court and attorneys to hash-out those issues outside their presence, Bundy resumed his testimony, and testified that during the occupation he was having discussions with Eastern Oregon Congressional Rep. Greg Waldon’s office, and those discussions were making a difference. He testified that because of the Refuge occupation, a lot of people were taking the Hammond situation a lot more seriously. He said he was trying to get local government officials, including Sheriff Ward, to assert their rights, and help restore their rights, as had happened to some extent with his family in Bunkerville, with the Clark County sheriff’s department intervened to help resolve the situation, and helped to secure release of Bundys’ impounded cattle.
Nevada State Assemblywoman, Michelle Fiore, who helped negotiate the final surrender at the Refuge, testified briefly, as did PPN (Pacific Patrior Network) leader Brandon Rapollo, who testified about his service

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in the Marine Corps, and what the PPN as doing at the Refugre on January 9th, when he and other PPN leaders delivered proposed Articles of Resolution to Ammond Bundy and his closest associates, and then they went to Burns to deliver the same proposed Articles of Resolution to the FBI. According to some media sources, the most notable thing about Fiore’s testimony was the fact that when she was leaving the stand, she waved to the jury, and lipped “thank you,” which was thoroughly mocked in many quarters.

(Macfarlane neglected to include that Michele Fiore also said "you mean when the murdered LaVaoy Finicum and was immediatly cut off by Judge Brown.)

It is anticipated that Ammon Bundy’s testimony will continue tomorrow (Thursday) for the third day, first on direct examination, and then on cross examination, which could, potentionally, take the entire day, and conclude the trial week.

For contrasting perspectives and reporting, you can also follow Maxine Bernstein for OregonLive, and Conrad Wilson for Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), or Gary Hunt at Outpost for Freedom and Redoubt News.

At RANGEFIRE! we believe there needs to be alternative voices to mainstream media commentary and coverage of these issues.

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