Mistrial in Bundy armed standoff case

UNITED STATES: A judge in Nevada has declared a mistrial in the case against a states’ rights figure, his two sons and another man accused of leading a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents during a cattle grazing dispute.

Chief US District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas yesterday dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy, and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

It is the latest in a string of failed prosecutions in Nevada and Oregon against those who have opposed federal control of vast swathes of land in the American West.

Jurors in Portland, Oregon acquitted the two sons of taking over a wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than a month in early 2016 amid calls for the US government to turn over public land to local control.

In the Nevada case, Navarro faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over all evidence to defence lawyers, including records about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents during the standoff.

The tense confrontation near Bunkerville, about 130km north- east of Las Vegas, capped a decades-long dispute over Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees.

The 71-year-old rancher says his family has grazed cattle for more than a century in the area, and insists that public land belongs to states, not the federal government.

The four on trial were accused of enlisting armed gunmen to force government agents to abandon their effort to round up Bundy’s animals.

Acting US Attorney Steven Myhre had no immediate answer about whether prosecutors would retry the case. If so, the Bundys and Payne would still face 15 felony charges, including assault and threats against federal officers, firearms offences, obstruction and extortion.

Prosecutors also failed to win full convictions against six other men over the 2014 confrontation.

A whistleblower memo by a lead US Bureau of Land Management investigator, released last week, alleges widespread bad judgment, bias and misconduct, as well as ‘‘likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff’' in the days leading up to the standoff. – AP

PHOTO: AP From left, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Payne, Robert Finicum’s widow Jeanette, and Ryan Bundy, wife Angela and daughter Jamie leave the courthouse in Las Vegas after a judge declared a mistrial in the case against the Bundy brothers, their father and Payne.