A federal judge in Portland has denied bond for Ammon Bundy and others who illegally occupied federal land near Burns, Ore.
On Friday, Judge Stacie Beckerman sided with the prosecution who argued that the 11 jailed men and women were a flight risk and posed a threat to the community for their armed resistance against law enforcement.
The court decision comes at a tense time in the occupiers’ movement, after one of the occupiers, Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum, was fatally shot by a police officer on Tuesday.
The three-week standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge started Jan. 2, after Bundy led a march supporting others who had been convicted of arson on federal land. Following the march, ranchers and others staged an armed “sit-in” protesting the government’s overreach of federal land.
Those in jail face a federal felony count of conspiracy to impede officers from discharging their official duties. Four people remain at the refuge and have told the media they will not leave until they are promised all of the defendants are pardoned.
