Opening statements set for next week in standoff trial

Jurors are expected to hear opening statements early next week from lawyers representing the lead defendants in a 2014 standoff with federal agents, including rancher Cliven Bundy and two of his sons.

“These guys have been trying to tell their story for two years,” attorney Dan Hill, who represents Ammon Bundy, said of argument and testimony scheduled to start Tuesday. “Sowe’reexcitedtoputitoutthere for them. And I think a lot of people will be surprised to hear the full story — the extent of the government’s conduct and the history and background of the Bundys’ protest.”

Another of the lifelong rancher’s sons, Ryan Bundy, who is representing himself during the trial, elicited testimony Friday from a former National Park Service ranger about video surveillance of the Bundy home that had not been disclosed.

Bret Whipple, attorney for the elder Bundy, a 71-year-old patriarch of a family with roots in the southeastern Nevada desert as old as the state, argued that prosecutors have acted in “bad faith” by not revealing that the surveillanceexistedandaskedforthe case to be dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro did not make a decision regarding the video. She denied a separate motion from lawyers representing independent Montana militia member Ryan Payne to throw out the case based on documents agents shredded during the April occupation of the Bunkerville ranch. She said there was no evidence that information on the papers would have benefited the defendants.

The defendants face the potential of decades behind bars if convicted of conspiracy and other charges related to the armed standoff. Their trial could extend as late as February. It will be the third trial in the case.

Thefirsttwotrialsendedwithseveral acquittals and a pair of convictions, leading three defendants to cut plea deals with prosecutors.