Bunkerville Standoff: Judge Navarro Blinks!
By Shari Dovale
Today brought a full day of court hearings in the Bunkerville Standoff trial.
The Tier 1 defendants, considered the leaders of the Bunkerville Protest, were scheduled to begin jury selection on October 10th. Several motion hearings were scheduled for this week.
Then the Las Vegas shooting took place on October 1st.
The day began with Pete Santilli changing his plea to guilty for Felony Conspiracy for his role in the protest. He was released on his own recognizance with several stipulations to be followed before his scheduled sentencing on Jan 11, 2018. It is expected for Santilli to receive time-served plus probation. It was noted on the record that Santilli will not be testifying at the upcoming trial.
Ryan and Ammon Bundy have not been in the courtroom for their hearings. They have protested the mandatory strip searches performed by the Pahrump Detention Center. It was not much different today.
Judge Gloria Navarro finally seemed concerned this week that a resolution could not be found for this issue. Both defendants have made it clear that they want to attend the proceedings but were being singled out by guards at the prison for retaliatory action in the form of these strip searches.
Evidence was put forth that indicated the Pahrump Detention Center may be going too far with these particular defendants. Judge Navarro finally agreed that a change was appropriate and ordered the men to be moved to the Henderson Jail. The order included that the men were not to be stripped before leaving Pahrump. This order covered Ryan and Ammon Bundy, as well as Ryan Payne.
During the hearings today, Ryan Bundy was denied his right to represent himself. The judge felt that he was not making sense to the court, and could be getting some very bad advice from someone on his legal team.
Bundy’s assigned stand-by counsel, Angela Dows, requested, and was granted, a withdrawl from the case. A new attorney was assigned to represent Bundy, until it was determined that the scheduling conflicted would not allow him to accept the case. A new attorney will be found for Ryan next week.
For a short time, there was discussion on Ryan being moved to the third trial, so as to give a new attorney time to prepare for the case. AUSA Myhre objected to that and stated that Ryan knew the case and could get his attorney up to speed. This might have been possible if the attorney could have been secured.
It is also to be determined as to whether or not the attorney will be fully handling the case or whether it will be a stand-by attorney with Ryan defending himself. Despite the problems in the courtroom earlier, Judge Navarro made indications that she is open to reinstating Ryan if she felt he was competent.
Quite a lot of discussion ensued on whether to delay the trial, or even change the venue, due to the shooting event on October 1st.
A request was made to move the trial to Reno. This was denied by Judge Navarro.
Several delays, from 30-90 days, were requested and considered. Navarro agreed to a short delay and scheduled a status hearing on October 24th, with a new tentative trial date set on October 30th.
Todd Leventhal, attorney for Scott Drexler, stated in court that he had based his schedule on the original trial date and could not change his plans. He may not be available for a trial during the holidays. Watch for motions on this issue in the near future.
I do wonder how the defendants will react to another delay, as they have already been detained for 21 months without a trial.
It is understandable that Judge Navarro had no control over the issues requiring the delay, but neither did these defendants. They deserve more than the benefit of the doubt, at this point.
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Where’s the pressure from the so-called “liberty leaders” that were involved at Bundy Ranch – Sheriff Mack, Stewart Rhodes of Oathkeepers, and most notably, Chuck Baldwin, who passionately defended the Bundy Ranch standoff as just, and “right, in the eyes of God”? (see http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3410/Burns-Oregon-Is-Not-Bundy-Ranch.aspx).
Since that article, and after Cliven Bundy’s arrest, Chuck Baldwin is AWOL – silent – like Cliven Bundy fell off the face of the planet.
What most liberty loving people don’t know is that Baldwin threw LaVoy Fincium and Victoria Sharp under the bus, just 5 days after LaVoy’s shooting, with a 68-minute opinion piece where he said LaVoy was justifiably shot. He said he’d offer a public retraction if he was wrong. Since then, we’ve learned that Victoria was right – the FBI shot at LaVoy with his hands up (2x); the Burns occupiers were found NOT GUILTY; the FBI agent was indicted in June of this year; Cliven and his sons have been denied the right to a speedy trial and have been denied the right to defend themselves; and still Baldwin is SILENT!
Please share this hit piece that Baldwin did on LaVoy and Victoria – people need to hear this, especially in light of his total silence since then. https://youtu.be/OY5mwpI4DGI.
Finally, let it be known that Chuck Baldwin gave Michael Brown, shot by police in Ferguson, MO, more latitude and grace then he did LaVoy Finicum. In 2014, nearly a month after Brown was shot, Baldwin, in paragraph 13 of an article he wrote, titled, “An Open Letter to Law Enforcement” said:
“Look what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Regardless of whether the shooting of the young man was justified or not (along with everyone else, I am waiting for a proper and thorough investigation to provide an honest answer),…”
Freedom and liberty-loving Christians, and patriots, need to ask Chuck why LaVoy didn’t qualify for the same grace given to Michael Brown. While they’re asking, they might also ask him what prompted him to take such a rigid stand, so soon, with so little evidence, and NEVER change his stance one iota.
How many times are they going to retry these cases? Will they continue to drag these guys through trials until the outcome suits the government’s wish list?
The ignoramuses in the trial and in the detention center must surely realize that their behavior is dictating their demise!?!?!? There surely is going to come a time when the piper will be paid!!!
The kangaroo court procedings won’t stop, even though Queen Navarro might do a little backpedalling once in awhile, until President Trump appoints a head of the Justice Department who believes and follows the US Constitution. To make a statement saying the Nevada Federal Court Sytstem is doing a “good job” and that he won’t make a decision on the Navaroo court is ludicrous and indicates Sessions is NOT a proper choice for the director of the Justice Department!!!