By January 24, 2017 at 5:19 PM
A federal judge Tuesday found no basis to suppress statements Oregon standoff defendant Jake Ryan made to FBI agents before his arrest on federal conspiracy and weapons charges.
Ryan had argued that he thought he had been granted immunity from any criminal charges in exchange for his surrender to law enforcement on Jan. 28 at the checkpoint outside the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Jake RyanMCSO
He also argued that he had been tricked into answering FBI agents' questions once he returned to his home in Montana after the refuge occupation ended last winter.
But a federal prosecutor presented evidence to the contrary Tuesday, playing the recorded call between an FBI crisis negotiator and Ryan when Ryan remained at the refuge on Jan. 27. The prosecutor also questioned one of two FBI agents who interviewed Ryan in Montana in February.
Ryan faces felony charges of conspiring to impede federal workers at the federal wildlife refuge, possession of firearms in a federal facility and depredation of government property. He's also charged with misdemeanor allegations of trespass and tampering with vehicles and equipment.
Ryan was one of only five people who remained at the federal wildlife refuge in Harney County the morning after the Jan. 26 arrests of the refuge occupation leaders and the state police fatal shooting of occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy'' Finicum.
On Jan. 27, Ryan was caught on video digging trenches at the refuge using a government excavator, according to federal prosecutors.
FBI Agent Christopher Luh, one of the crisis negotiators, reached occupier David Fry's mobile phone that day, attempting to convince those remaining at the refuge to leave. He spoke to co-defendant Sean Anderson, who handed the phone off to Ryan.
"I don't know who the freak you are,'' Jake Ryan told the agent.
Ryan ranted about how the "tyrannical thugs'' are "controlling everything'' in the country, and accused the agent of not caring.
"If you do care, you would open the blockage and let us go,'' Ryan told Luh.
"Jake, you can go,'' Luh responded.
Ryan mocked the agent's response, suggesting he'd have his guns and all his rights taken away too.
"Jake, you don't have a warrant. You can go,'' Luh told him. "If those weapons are legally yours, you can go.''
Ryan can be heard on the line laughing.
Luh testified that he also spoke to Ryan's brother, and instructed him similarly. Early on Jan. 28, Ryan approached an FBI roadblock unarmed and empty-handed, leaving his firearms and personal belongings behind at the refuge in a trailer, according to his lawyer. He was released and returned to his home in Plains, Montana.
"I wasn't in a position to provide any type of immunity,'' Luh said on the witness stand Tuesday.
Two weeks later, two FBI agents traveled from Salt Lake City to Montana to set up an interview with Ryan. At the request of the Portland FBI office, the agents contacted Sanders County Sheriff Tom Rummell, to help arrange the meeting with Ryan.
The purpose of the agents' meeting was to find out what activities Ryan was involved in while he was at the refuge, FBI Special Agent Shawn Hall said, testifying by phone Tuesday from Utah.
About 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 10, the two agents met Ryan, along with his parents Daniel and Roxanna and the local sheriff outside the sheriff's office in Thompson Falls, Montana. They walked to a nearby municipal building to meet in a conference room, and Ryan answered the agents' questions for about 30 minutes.
The agents advised Ryan he was not under arrest, free to leave at any time and didn't have to speak with them, Hall said. The father asked if he could record or videotape the interview, and the agents told him no.
Ryan told the agents he took four guns to the refuge, acquired three more firearms and a tactical vest while at the refuge and placed them in an RV trailer at The Narrows campground nearby. He asked the agents how he could get the firearms back, claiming they were seized illegally.
The agents told Ryan they were unaware of the firearms.
Ryan told the FBI he supported Ammon Bundy's cause, believed the refuge belonged to the people and not the federal government, and went to the eastern Oregon wildlife sanctuary to learn more from Bundy and Finicum about their interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. He said he stayed at the refuge about two weeks, and was one of three people able to operate heavy machinery on the property, including a tractor, dump truck, excavator and back hoes. He said the heavy equipment was used to repair some of the roads on the refuge property.
According to Ryan's lawyer Jesse Merrithew, Ryan answered FBI questions, but didn't expect his statements to be used against him because he thought he wasn't going to be charged with any crime.
"The FBI, through Sheriff Rummell, tricked Mr. Ryan into believing he was going to the interview for the purpose of getting his guns back. He was never read his Miranda rights, and he had no reason to believe there was any other purpose behind the interview,'' Merrithew wrote in a motion to suppress the interview statements.
On March 6, a grand jury returned an indictment against Ryan, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. When the FBI contacted Ryan's family and law enforcement in Montana, they learned Ryan had fled the state. He was arrested a month later, on April 5 in Clark County, Washington, hiding out in a stranger's shed with a handgun and several knives, according to federal authorities.
Ryan, who is out of custody, waived his right to be present at Tuesday's hearing.
U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown found no basis to support Ryan's motion to suppress his statements. She said his interview on Feb. 10 with federal agents in Montana appeared to be voluntary, that he wasn't intimidated or misled by federal law enforcement and wasn't promised immunity.
-- Maxine Bernstein
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503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
