They’re Back!
Sheriff, feds: Rancher must be held accountable
7/6/2014 2:16:14 AM
RENO, Nev. (AP) — U.S. Bureau of Land Management
officials say they agree with a Nevada sheriff's position that rancher Cliven
Bundy must be held accountable for his role in an April standoff between his
supporters and the federal agency.
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said Bundy crossed the
line when he allowed states' rights supporters, including self-proclaimed
militia members, onto his property to aim guns at police.
"If you step over that line,
there are consequences to those actions," Gillespie told the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. "And I believe they stepped over that line. No doubt about
it. They need to be held accountable for it."
Bureau spokeswoman Celia
Boddington, in a statement released Saturday to The Associated Press, said the
agency continues to pursue the matter "aggressively through the legal
system."
"There is an ongoing
investigation and we are working diligently to ensure that those who broke the
law are held accountable," she said, declining to elaborate.
The FBI declined comment Saturday
on its investigation. Bundy did not respond to a request for comment.
The Bureau of Land Management says
Bundy owes over $1 million in fees and penalties for trespassing on federal
property without a permit over 20 years. Bundy, whose ancestors settled in the
area in the late 1800s, refuses to acknowledge federal authority on public
lands.
A federal judge in Las Vegas first ordered
Bundy in 1998 to remove "trespass cattle" from land the bureau
declared a refuge for the endangered desert tortoise. Bureau officials obtained
court orders last year allowing the roundup.
Boddington disputed Gillespie's
contention the agency mishandled the roundup of Bundy's cattle 80 miles
northeast of Las Vegas.
The bureau backed down during the
showdown with Bundy and his armed supporters, citing safety concerns, and
released some 380 Bundy cattle collected during a weeklong operation from a
vast arid range half the size of the state of Delaware.
Gillespie blamed the bureau for
escalating the conflict and ignoring his advice to delay the roundup after he
had a confrontational meeting with Bundy's children a few weeks before it
began.
"I came back from that
saying, 'This is not the time to do this,' " the sheriff told the
Review-Journal. "They said, 'We do this all the time. We know what we're
doing. We hear what you're saying, but we're moving forward.'"
Tensions further escalated early
in the roundup after a video showed one of Bundy's sons being stunned with a
Taser. The video drew militia members and others to Bundy's ranch.
Bundy was not a hardened criminal,
Gillespie told the newspaper. He was a rancher who stopped paying his fees, the
sheriff said, and that was not worth risking violence.
But Boddington said the bureau
planned and conducted the roundup in "full coordination" with
Gillespie and his office.
"It is unfortunate that the
sheriff is now attempting to rewrite the details of what occurred, including
his claims that the BLM did not share accurate information," she said.
"The sheriff encouraged the operation and promised to stand shoulder-to-shoulder
with us as we enforced two recent federal court orders."
"Sadly, he backed out of his
commitment shortly before the operation - and after months of joint planning -
leaving the BLM and the National Park Service to handle the crowd control that
the sheriff previously committed to handling," she added.
Police State USSA: Feds Vs Rancher Face Off (Past Research
on U.S.
Bureau of Land Management)
Monday, April 7, 2014
Sheriff Wanted Humans Slaughtered At #BundyRanch! (Past
Research on Clark
County Sheriff Doug
Gillespie)
Monday, April 14, 2014
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