2 found guilty in 1st trial over standoff

LAS VEGAS — A jury found two men guilty of federal charges Monday in an armed standoff that stopped federal agents from rounding up cattle near Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in 2014.

Gregory Burleson of Arizona was found guilty of eight charges, including threatening and assaulting a federal officer. Todd Engel of Idaho was found guilty of obstruction and extortion.

But the jurors deadlocked on charges against four other men — Richard Lovelien, Scott Drexler, Eric Parker and Steven Stewart — and the judge declared a mistrial. They are to be retried in June.

The trial was the first of three in federal court in Las Vegas arising from the standoff, which was hailed as a victory by states’ rights advocates who want vast stretches of federal land in the West put under local control.

It is seen as a preview for an upcoming trial for Bundy; his eldest sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy; and two other defendants whom prosecutors have characterized as leaders of the conspiracy.

The Bundys have become symbols in the long-running fight over government-owned land. The sons also were accused of leading a 41-day armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon last year. They were acquitted of all charges but kept behind bars to face trial in the earlier standoff near their father’s ranch.

Burleson, Engel, Lovelien, Drexler, Parker and Stewart had answered a Bundy family call-to-arms three years ago in Bunkerville, Nev., making them co-conspirators in a plan to commit a federal offense and impede or injure federal officers, prosecutors said.

The government was enforcing court orders to get Bundy’s cattle off public lands for failing to pay grazing fees. No shots were fired in the standoff.