Mistrial in Nevada (Bundy) standoff is latest defeat for prosecutors

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A U.S. judge in Nevada dealt another defeat Wednesday to federal prosecutors trying to punish leaders of armed standoffs meant to oppose federal authority over vast swaths of land in the American West.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas declared a mistrial in the long-awaited case against states’ rights figure Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

Prosecutors were trying to prove the four broke the law in a tense armed confrontation between Bundy supporters and government agents who gave up efforts to confiscate Bundy cattle in 2014.

Navarro didn’t dismiss the case outright, but said she might after a Jan. 8 hearing. She also severely criticized prosecutors for suppressing information and violating constitutional due process by failing to turn over all their evidence to defense attorneys. She called the conduct “willful.”

“The defense has a right to information so it can go to a jury,” the judge said, “so the jury can decide.”

The setback comes a year after a federal jury in Portland, Oregon, acquitted Ryan and Ammon Bundy of all charges after leading an occupation of a U.S. wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon in early 2016 and demanding the federal government turn over public land to local control.

This year, prosecutors in Nevada failed to gain full convictions in two trials against six defendants in the Bundy case who acknowledged carrying assault-style weapons during the April 2014 confrontation outside Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Two of them, from Idaho, were memorably photographed on a highway overpass pointing weapons at heavily armed federal agents facing hundreds of flag-waving protesters in a dry riverbed below.

The display forced a smaller group of agents to quit rounding up Bundy cattle and sent a shock wave across Western states, where the federal government owns most of the land and many ranchers chafe at grazing restrictions.

Cliven Bundy, 71, has become a states’ rights icon. Hundreds answered calls on social media to protest and protect him.

His trial on 15 felony charges, including conspiracy, weapon counts and threatening and impeding a federal officer, had been expected to last four months. The defendants face the prospect of decades in prison.

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