{"id":9383,"date":"2016-10-04T01:20:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T08:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/?p=9383"},"modified":"2016-10-04T23:07:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T06:07:42","slug":"perspectives-on-the-occupation-trial-of-the-oregon-malheur-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/perspectives-on-the-occupation-trial-of-the-oregon-malheur-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspectives on the Occupation Trial of the Oregon Malheur Wildlife Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"malheur-occupation\"<\/h1>\n

The Occupation Trial <\/strong>of the Oregon Malheur Wildlife Refuge<\/strong><\/h1>\n

By Scott Michael Rohter, October 2016<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dateline: October 3, Portland Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\n

There seems to be a clear and concerted effort under way by the Federal government to manipulate the outcome of this trial by concealing exculpatory evidence from the jury. The\u00a0evidence which has not been allowed into court goes to prove\u00a0the defendant Ammon Bundy’s\u00a0motives and\/or to corroborate his intent, but Judge Brown has refused to allow any discussion of the Ammon Bundy’s motives so far, only\u00a0his state of mind…\u00a0 as if there was really anything wrong with his state of mind when he and his brother Ryan and a few\u00a0supporters and friends\u00a0decided to sacrifice\u00a0their own comfort, safety, and freedom to support a cause they\u00a0believe in… private property rights. I would venture\u00a0to guess that Judge Brown probably thinks that anyone who is willing to\u00a0give up their freedom for a cause they believe\u00a0is probably nuts and deserves to lose it\u2026<\/p>\n

It is clear to me from observing this trial that Ammon Bundy more than any one else is the real focus of this trial.\u00a0 Nobody else gets nearly as much examination or cross examination time as his attorney Mr. Mumford does. Government prosecutors and the judge appear to be working together to limit the amount of\u00a0evidence that the defense can use in the trial. It seems like every time\u00a0Mr. Mumford or Ryan Bundy open their mouths to examine a witness the prosecutor is back up on his feet again objecting to the admissibility of their questions.<\/p>\n

Every once in a while\u00a0the judge\u00a0lets her irritation with Ammon Bundy’s attorney\u00a0show through. She\u00a0keeps saying that she doesn\u2019t want\u00a0him to waste the jury\u2019s time with\u00a0more of the same corroborative testimony\u00a0or evidence. She doesn’t\u00a0actually use those\u00a0words… She prefers to call it “cumulative” rather than corroborative, but whatever she calls it,\u00a0what she really means\u00a0is that she doesn\u2019t\u00a0want\u00a0Mr. Mumford wasting any more of her own precious time\u2026 \u00a0“Move along Mr. Mumford. Ask another question please.” But your honour… “Ask another question I said Mr. Mumford.” <\/em>She would probably prefer to send all of the defendants\u00a0to prison for life and\u00a0just wrap the trial up tomorrow\u00a0 convinced that the defendants are all guilty. At least that is my perception… and I am a probably not too far from the truth. She seems especially irritated at times with Ammon Bundy\u2019s attorney,\u00a0while a\u00a0little too condescending\u00a0whenever addressing\u00a0Ryan Bundy, but she doesn’t appear to be\u00a0bothered by anyone else in the room.<\/p>\n

As she sips from a cup of whatever it is she is drinking\u00a0behind her hallowed bench.. I wonder why I am forbidden from bringing\u00a0my preferred beverage into the courtroom… There appears to be one law for the judge and another for the rest of the people in\u00a0her courtroom.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how can we claim to be a Nation of laws when the government doesn\u2019t follow the Constitution. The supreme law of the land is\u00a0completely ignored by the government. From the moment that these defendants were arrested and even before… they were not afforded their Constitutional rights. They were not presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. They were locked up for more than seven months\u00a0before their trial. Ammon and Ryan Bundy are still locked up. \u00a0They were held in pretrial custody when they clearly did not pose a flight risk nor a threat to the community.\u00a0They have been denied bail. They were placed in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, and\u00a0worse than that… Ryan Bundy was severely beaten by prison guards for refusing to allow the government to remove the bullet which remains in his shoulder from the day Oregon State Police murdered Lavoy Finicum in cold blood. All of this\u00a0happened before they were allowed to have their day in court.\u00a0Is this justice? Is this what\u00a0the government likes to call law and order? If so then I am ashamed to be an American.<\/p>\n

Now that the trial is finally going on it appears that government abuses are still going on too. The government is restricting the admission of evidence so as to affect the outcome of the trial. They are very strictly\u00a0controlling what the jury can hear. Instead of making their case by a clear and convincing presentation of the facts, federal prosecutors with the help of the judge are trying to prevent defense\u00a0attorneys from making a clear and convincing presentation of\u00a0their own. This is what I witnessed\u00a0when I was in the courtroom with my own eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

There seems to be a clear and concerted effort by the Federal government to manipulate the outcome of this trial by concealing exculpatory evidence from the jury. This evidence goes to prove or to corroborate the motives of the defendants and their intent, but Judge Brown has refused to allow any discussion of the defendants\u2019 motives so far…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,6],"tags":[701,784,697,723],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9383"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9394,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9383\/revisions\/9394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lessgovisthebestgov.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}