Category Archives: LV Review Journal

Idaho gun enthusiast Eric Parker banked on his commitment to self-defense Thursday when he stepped to the witness stand and tried to convince jurors he played no role in a conspiracy to bully federal agents into abandoning their roundup of hundreds of rancher Cliven Bundy’s cows.

“I didn’t care about the cows,” said Parker, 33, who is one of six people charged as “gunmen” in the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville. During the standoff, Parker was photographed pointing a long gun through a jersey barrier on the Interstate 15 overpass that overlooked the sandy ditch where protesters were face-to-face with federal agents.

Federal investigators posed as documentary filmmakers in order to draw statements from some of the protesters as they were building their case.

Testimony at the trial revealed that one of the men, defendant Gregory Burleson, was a paid FBI informant from 2012 until an undisclosed date. What sort of information he provided was not disclosed, but he was known to be an active member of Arizona militia groups.

The men are standing trial on charges of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, aiding and abetting, interference with interstate commerce by extortion, and other counts.

Undercover FBI agents posed as documentary filmmakers for a production titled “America Reloaded” to draw statements from the men who rushed to support rancher Cliven Bundy in his 2014 stand against the federal government.

The undercover operation has been alluded to in previous court filings, but it was detailed in federal court Wednesday when FBI Special Agent Charles Johnson testified as a government witness in the trial against six men accused of conspiring to block Bureau of Land Management agents from impounding Bundy’s cattle.

Ryan Bundy, who previously accused federal authorities of violating the Constitution when they seized his father’s cattle, now claims he has been denied his right to a speedy trial.

In a motion filed late Wednesday, Bundy asks a federal judge to dismiss his 16-count indictment on threats, extortion and related charges stemming from the 2014 armed standoff near his family ranch in Bunkerville. Prosecutors are trying the first of three groups of people charged in the case, and Bundy is in the second trial group.

A federal judge Thursday dismissed one of the jurors seated for the trial against six men accused of conspiring with rancher Cliven Bundy.

The woman, identified only as “juror 12,” was dismissed late Thursday after U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro noticed her falling asleep on several occasions during testimony. The jury includes four alternates, so the case will not be affected by the juror’s dismissal.

As the 2014 standoff in Bunkerville escalated and authorities started to fear a gunfight, Bureau of Land Management Ranger Patrick Apley turned off his body camera.

“I was mad,” Apley testified Tuesday in the trial against six men accused of conspiring with rancher Cliven Bundy to block federal authorities from seizing cattle. “I felt like we were going to be in a firefight, and I really didn’t want to record that.”

Opening statements are scheduled for Thursday in the conspiracy trial against six men accused of participating in an armed standoff against federal law enforcement agents who tried to impound rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle.

Prosecutors characterize the six men as the “least culpable” among 17 co-conspirators facing trial on extortion, assault and other charges resulting from the 2014 confrontation between anti-government protesters and Bureau of Land Management agents near Bundy’s ranch in Bunkerville.