PORTLAND, Ore. – The U.S. Attorney’s office in Oregon has taken a beating since a jury acquitted seven defendants of conspiracy and weapons charges in an armed takeover at a federal wildlife refuge – and government prosecutors still have a long road ahead.
Seven more defendants are set for trial in February in a second high-stakes airing of the same evidence and the same witnesses. Under intense scrutiny after the acquittals, the government now must decide whether it wants to press forward with an almost identical case, make changes or give up entirely.
“I’m sure it was a surprising verdict for the government. I’m sure most observers were assuming it would be a fairly slam-dunk case, and we were all wrong about it,” said Tung Yin, a former criminal defense attorney and professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland. “Knowing what we know now, how would they have approached this case differently – and how will they approach these other defendants differently?”
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland declined to comment on the acquittals and the upcoming trial.
Defense attorneys, however, questioned whether government prosecutors would be wise to proceed, given that the first jury didn’t buy the government’s conspiracy case. The next round of defendants is also emboldened by the acquittals and considers another trial a forum to bring their brand of political protest to a national audience for a second time.
“Watching the trial, it was clear: This is what they wanted to do and, to some extent, has the government played into their hands? Are they playing into their hands in trial No.2?” said Andrew Kohlmetz, an attorney for Jason Patrick, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and weapons charges.
“They’re giving them a soap box to stand on, and I think they need to make some tough policy decisions,” he said of government attorneys.
Brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five others were acquitted on Oct. 27 of felony charges of conspiracy to impede federal employees from doing their job and possession of firearms in a federal facility after a six-week trial in U.S. District Court in Portland. The heavily armed occupiers seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2 to protest the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers who were convicted for setting fires on public land.
More than two dozen others eventually joined the 41-day occupation, which grew into demands for the U.S. government to turn over public lands to local control.
