Three of seven remaining Oregon standoff defendants on Monday entered guilty pleas to a single misdemeanor charge of trespass, and were sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay $1,000 restitution to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Idaho couple Sean Anderson and Sandra Anderson, who were among the last four holdouts at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter, and Dylan Anderson, of Provo, Utah, each admitted they entered, occupied and used the federal wildlife sanctuary without authorization.
As two special conditions of their probation, U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown ordered each not to travel to the federal wildlife refuge in Harney County, and not to occupy or camp on any federal property without authorization.
“I would say that the Malheur refuge is not on my bucket list,” Sean Anderson told the judge, when asked if he understood the conditions.
They forfeited rights to their firearms or ammunition that the FBI seized at the refuge, and waived their right to an appeal. All other felony and misdemeanor charges against them were dismissed.
The court, however, will allow Sean Anderson to retrieve a 1911 .45-caliber pistol, considered a family heirloom, after his one-year of probation is completed. The gun will remain in the custody of the Idaho County sheriff until the probation is successfully served. Anderson also successfully got permission to continue bow hunting during his probation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said the husband and wife traveled together to the refuge three times for short stays of a night or two days between Jan. 5 and Jan. 18, before they returned a fourth time on Jan. 25 and stayed until Feb. 11, following the Jan. 26 arrest of occupation leader Ammon Bundy and the police fatal shooting of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.
The plea deal focused on the couple’s last two tense weeks, when they were holed up in the west encampment of the refuge, repeatedly refused orders to leave the property and made inflammatory statements on live video – “the day the whole world watched,” as Sandra Anderson later described it.
Despite Sean Anderson’s “alarming” rants caught on video during the last days of the occupation, the prosecutor said he agreed with Sean Anderson’s lawyer that he should not be judged solely by those moments when he was under stress. The last four holdouts said they feared the FBI would attack and kill them, in the wake of the Jan. 26 police fatal shooting of occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicium.
In one video during the last hours of the standoff, Sean Anderson urged people to come to the refuge and “fight for your country,” suggesting that the “media has been waiting for a bloodbath.” In another, he described the unfolding situation as a “free-for-all Armageddon,” calling law enforcement officers “who don’t abide by their oath” the enemy and added: “If they stop you from getting here, kill them.” In a third video, Anderson was captured discussing the need to “keep your eye in the sky” with gunshots heard off screen. Sean Anderson wasn’t seen on the video firing into the air, but admitted later to firing his gun, according to prosecutors.
Matthew McHenry, Anderson’s court-appointed attorney, said he wrote a letter to the court, explaining “how that was not Sean’s true character.” He previously has urged the court not to judge his client by the “shock” videos, calling them a tiny fraction of his client’s life, and to consider the full context of the situation that Anderson faced.
Moments before the plea hearing, Sean Anderson, 48, described the plea offer “as a blessing.” He wore a white T-shirt to court that read, “He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.”
Sandra Anderson, a 49-year-old teacher’s aide who works with young children, had never been involved in a protest before, and has no prior criminal history, her court-appointed lawyer Tyl Bakker said. He said the two came to Harney County with no connection to the Bundys, but to protest the return to federal prison of Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond.
Sean Anderson is a union electrician and “jack of all trades,” who has been doing ranch work, farm work and harvesting firewood to come up with the $1,000 restitution that each planned to pay on Monday.
“Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are not people of means. $2,000 is also a significant burden to them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel told the court.
Brown agreed that the negotiated plea deal was “reasonable,” and that the time the couple already spent in jail was a “sufficient punishment.” Sandra Anderson spent a couple of weeks, and her husband three months before they were granted pretrial release.
The judge also said she had listened during the first trial to the phone conversations Sean Anderson had with FBI crisis negotiators, and she recognized the comments he made on those may not have been what he typically says to others in different circumstances.
“I have to believe that was an extraordinarily difficult time,” Brown said. “Good luck to you. I hope I don’t have to see you again, and you probably feel the same way…you know what I mean.”
After court, Sandra Anderson, standing with her husband, told reporters, that she was dismayed that the judge denied them a right to a jury trial on the misdemeanor charges.
“God has directed us that our fight in the court is futile and we must move our battlefield again. We must continue educating people on the constitutional rights before they’re long forgotten,” Sandra Anderson said.
Dylan Anderson, known as “Captain Moroni” of Provo, Utah, was the first to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge Monday morning. He was at the refuge on Jan. 3, photographed guarding the entrance with a rifle. He was quoted telling a reporter, “I didn’t come here to shoot. I came here to die,” according to a federal court filing. Anderson had said he traveled to the Oregon refuge because he was inspired by Ammon Bundy, the leader of the occupation. Bundy has said the refuge takeover was done to protest the return to federal prison of two Harney County ranchers and the federal control of public land.
Anderson also had told a reporter that God, in the form of a flock of geese, had validated his desire to join the refuge takeover, according to court documents. Anderson had returned to his home in Utah for 13 days in January before traveling back to the refuge on Jan. 21, his lawyer said. Anderson left the refuge on Jan. 27, leaving behind two firearms, including an assault rifle and a handgun that had belonged to his grandfather, according to the FBI.
Asked by the judge what he did to warrant a guilty plea, Dylan Anderson referred to the prosecutor’s account that he had stayed at the refuge without permission.
“I plead guilty,” Dylan Anderson, 36, said. “I didn’t have an authorization obviously.”
After his hearing, his court-appointed lawyer Samuel Kauffman said, “We consider this an unqualified victory for Dylan. You have to admire people who put their life on the line for freedom.”
Dylan Anderson, though, said he was still concerned about the remaining defendants who weren’t offered the same plea deal. “Why are we the chosen ones?” he asked. ” I felt like I was going to abandon those other three guys.”
A fourth defendant, Darryl Thorn, who had negotiated the same plea deal, backed out of it during the weekend – his second time shunning a negotiated plea in the case.
” I’m not taking any DEALS…!”Thorn wrote on his Facebook page Sunday night, beside an emoji of a middle finger standing up. “YOU CAN KISS MY (expletive)…! I WILL PROCEED 2 TRIAL.”
The pleas come just eight days before the defendants were set to go to trial, and now leave four people scheduled for trial on Feb. 14. They’re charged with felonies, including conspiracy to impede federal workers from carrying out their duties at the refuge through intimidation, threat or force, possession of a firearm in a federal facility, and depredation of government property, as well as misdemeanor charges of trespass, tampering with vehicles or equipment, or removal and destruction of government property.
As if he is looking to plead out in the case, one of the remaining defendants Duane Ehmer said no. “I will not. I got to take it all the way,” Ehmer said.
— Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
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