A federal jury in Las Vegas delivered not guilty verdicts today to four gunmen involved in the 2014 standoff led by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.
“U.S. prosecutors said the four defendants — Scott Drexler, Ricky Lovelien, Eric Parker, and Steven Stewart — committed crimes including conspiracy, assault on a federal officer, extortion, and weapons law violations when they traveled to Nevada with firearms to participate in a plan to halt a cattle roundup,” said Reuters.
Defense attorneys for the men argued they were exercising their right to freedom of speech and carried weapons with them because they feared for their safety. “The uprising at Bundy’s ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada, 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Las Vegas, grew out of a dispute in which federal agents seized Bundy’s cattle over his refusal to pay fees required for grazing his livestock on government land,” said Reuters.
Bundy and his sons, who later were leaders in the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, have become icons in a movement to deliver control of federal lands to states.