BY MAXINE BERNSTEIN The Oregonian/OregonLive June 21, 2017
Geoffrey Stanek, who pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy last year in the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, should not face a sentence longer than the one-year probation given to three co-defendants who were allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, his lawyer argues.
Stanek, 27, wasn’t at the refuge takeover from the start and didn’t stay until the end, like co-defendants Sean and Sandra Anderson who were among the last holdouts before their Feb. 11, 2016 surrender. The Anderson couple and co-defendant Dylan Anderson avoided a trial by pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge of trespass this winter and were sentenced to one year of probation.
Geoffrey Stanek (MCSO)
“Unlike Mr. Stanek, those three defendants were present from the beginning of the standoff, and were involved in the initial takeover,” Stanek’s lawyer Benjamin Andersen argues in a sentencing memo filed in court on Wednesday.
Sean Anderson was more culpable than Stanek, as Anderson made violent threats against law enforcement on YouTube during the last two weeks of the refuge takeover. In contrast, Stanek left the property voluntarily after the occupation leaders were arrested on Jan. 26, 2016, his lawyer noted.
“This court should impose a sentence no more severe than the sentences imposed on other defendants, some of whom have worse records and arguably have more culpability in the overall offense,” Stanek’s lawyer Andersen wrote.
Prosecutors have rejected defense requests to reduce Stanek’s conspiracy charge to a misdemeanor and will ask a judge to sentence him to two years of probation with six months of home detention.
Stanek pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on June 15, 2016, before occupation leaders Ammon Bundy, his older brother Ryan Bundy and five others went to trial in the fall of 2016 and were acquitted of all felony charges. Stanek’s plea also came before a second federal trial in which a jury returned guilty verdicts on conspiracy charges against co-defendants Jason Patrick and Darryl Thorn, and before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown found Patrick, Thorn, co-defendants Jake Ryan and Duane Ehmer guilty on additional misdemeanor charges lodged, including trespass.
Stanek, who served in the U.S. Army, went to the refuge after learning about the occupation through a friend’s Facebook post, his lawyer said. He had a vague understanding of what it all was about, and thought it was a “constitutional protest,” his lawyer’s memo said.
“A main reason he decided to go was that he believed the medic skills that he had learned during his time in the United States Army could be of use,” the memo said. “As he understood it from Facebook, the situation could escalate, and medic skills could be important.”
Once at the refuge, Stanek fell back on his military training, taking orders from the leadership, his lawyer wrote.
Stanek told federal agents after his Feb. 11, 2016, arrest in Forest Grove that he was a member of the Oregon Three Percenters militia and learned about the refuge takeover from Facebook, prosecutors said during Stanek’s plea hearing.
Stanek said he brought an AR-15 rifle and a body armor vest to the refuge on Jan. 7, according to the government. There, he frequently performed armed guard duty in the watchtower and at the refuge entrances. He also drove an ATV belonging to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to block one of the refuge entrances, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel.
Stanek told FBI agents that those on guard duty had night-vision goggles, spotting scopes and binoculars, Gabriel said.
Stanek left the refuge on Jan. 26, 2016, the day FBI agents and state police moved in to arrest the occupation leaders as they were driving off the refuge to a community meeting in John Day. When Stanek was arrested the next month, he was carrying a loaded Glock 9mm handgun, which appeared to match one he had at the refuge based on photographs examined, according to Gabriel.
The government’s recommended two-year probation sentence reflects downward departures from sentencing guidelines because Stanek took responsibility for the offense early in the case, but also an upward departure from the guidelines because Stanek was armed and was convicted of the felony to impede federal employees through threat, intimidation or force.
Gabriel will ask the court to set additional conditions of probation that he described as important to the victims: that Stanek “not occupy, reside on or camp in” any federal land without approval of a probation officer, and not enter onto any federal lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service or the U.S. Forest Service without a probation officer’s approval.
Stanek has no prior criminal history. He previously worked as a security guard and was in the process of becoming a firefighter when he went to the refuge last year, his lawyer said. He’s had trouble finding a job since his felony conviction, his lawyer wrote in a sentencing memo.
Stanek is set to be sentenced at 10 a.m. on Monday by U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown.
He was one of 26 people indicted on the conspiracy charge, accused of using “threats, intimidation or force” to block U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service workers from doing their jobs at the federal bird sanctuary in Harney County.
Ammon Bundy, the leader of the occupation, 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. It lasted 41 days, from Jan. 2 through Feb. 11, 2106.
Bundy and six co-defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy, weapons and other charges after a five-week trial last fall. Stanek is one of 11 co-defendants who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge. Three others pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespass charge. Two others were convicted of conspiracy and misdemeanor charges at a trial this year; two others were convicted of depredation of government property and misdemeanor charges at this year’s trial. Prosecutors dismissed charges against another.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the case are continuing to negotiate restitution payments based on estimates of damage to the refuge. A hearing on the restitution costs is set for this fall.
