PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Lawyers for the leader of the armed occupation at a national wildlife preserve in Oregon have appealed a judge’s decision to keep him in jail, while four holdouts remain holed up in the frozen high desert Monday, nearly a month after the standoff began.
Group leader Ammon Bundy should be released with a GPS monitoring device and orders that the Idaho resident not leave the state except for court appearances, his lawyers, Mike Arnold and Lissa Casey, said in documents filed Sunday. They contend government prosecutors failed to provide “clear and convincing evidence” those steps would not suffice.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman said last week that Bundy, 40, presents a danger to the community and he might fail to return for future court proceedings. Beckerman said Bundy repeatedly ignored federal demands to leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and she had little confidence he would comply with orders to show up in court.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman is expected to consider the matter Tuesday, when he also weighs the government’s challenge to the potential release of another member of the armed group, Joseph O’Shaughnessy.
Bundy and O’Shaughnessy are among 11 people arrested in connection with the standoff that began Jan. 2, when the group called federal land restrictions burdensome and demanded the government turn over public lands to local control. Only one, Shawna Cox, has left jail.