Grand jury indicts 16 Oregon occupiers
Ammon Bundy in group charged with conspiracy.
SEATTLE — A federal grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday charges Ammon Bundy and 15 other people involved in the standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge with a single count of “conspiracy to impede officers of the United States” — evenas four of those charged remain at the refuge, refusing to surrender to FBI agents who surround them.
The indictment, by a grand jury convened in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., comes more than a week after Bundy and others were arrested during a traffic stop Jan. 26 — three weeks into the group’s armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon.
One occupier, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, 55, was shot and killed by police during the traffic stop.
On Jan. 2, Bundy led a protest in Burns, Ore., over the prison sentences handed to two ranchers who had set fires that spread to federal land. Later the same day, he and a small armed group took over the remote refuge, which is about 30 miles southeast of town.
Bundy and others said they would not leave until the federal government transferred the refuge to local control, an idea locals opposed and legal experts saidwas implausible.
According to the indictment, the defendants occupied the refuge “by force while using and carrying firearms.” They “brandished and carried firearms on the premises” of the refuge “and prevented federal officials from performing their official duties by force, threats and intimidation.”
It also notes that the occupiers refused to leave and “threatened violence against anybody who attempted to remove them.”
The charge, a felony, carries a maximum six-year prison sentence as well as potential fines.
The refuge has been closed since late December, after federal workers began reporting threats and suspicious activity. Other wildlife refuges nationwide have been placed on alert, theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday.