LAS VEGAS (AP) – When rancher Cliven Bundy faces a federal judge in Oregon on Tuesday, it won’t be because he is accused with his sons of having a hand in the armed occupation of a federal wildlife preserve that ended last week.
Instead, the 69-year-old patriarch will be answering charges stemming from a 2014 armed standoff that forced federal officials to release cattle being rounded up near his Nevada ranch.
Bundy is the first to face charges in what some advocates hailed as a victory in the fight to turn over federal land to state control.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Las Vegas isn’t saying why it took so long to arrest the elder Bundy. He has said only that the investigation is continuing.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said there could be many behind-the-scenes reasons for the arrest.