LAS VEGAS -- A judge has set three trials for 17 men accused of conspiring in an armed standoff against federal agents near Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's property in April 2014.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen, in a ruling on Monday, reversed the order proposed by federal prosecutors who wanted to try Bundy, sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and two other defendants first. Instead, they'll go last.
The judge set trial to begin Feb. 6 for six defendants whom the government has characterized as "followers and gunmen" and least responsible for planning the tense showdown that blocked a federal Bureau of Land Management roundup of Bundy cattle from public land.
"It made no sense to keep the least culpable in custody the longest," Todd Leventhal, attorney for Orville Scott Drexler, said Tuesday. Drexler is in the Feb. 6 group, with co-defendants Gregory Burleson, Todd Engel, Ricky Lovelien, Eric Parker and Steven Stewart.
Leventhal said he thought the judge may have been swayed by a request from Cliven Bundy, through his attorney Bret Whipple, to let other defendants stand trial first.
"My client was concerned that all those people who were being tried with him were being taken away from their families," Whipple said Tuesday.
Jury summonses have gone out saying trial could take up to five months. Meanwhile, the defendants remain in federal custody in southern Nevada.
Thirty days after the first trial ends, six alleged "midlevel" standoff leaders and organizers will stand trial, Leen decided. They are Bundy sons Dave and Mel Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Micah McGuire, Joseph O'Shaughnessy and Jason Woods.
The judge said that 30 days after t̶h̶a̶t̶ the Feb. 6* trial ends, proceedings will begin for Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and for co-defendants Peter Santilli and Ryan Payne.
Federal prosecutors allege the Bundy family patriarch, now 70, and his two sons led the conspiracy, obstruction, weapon, threat and assault offenses against federal officers.
Santilli's lawyer, Chris Rasmussen, said his client wanted to be tried first and will challenge Leen's order.
Bundy and family members maintain that the federal government has no authority in the public land near the Bunkerville-area ranch where he grazes cattle.
The dispute has roots in a nearly half-century fight over grazing policies in Nevada and the West, where the U.S. government controls vast expanses of property.
No one was hurt, and no shots were fired in the standoff about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
But images of Bundy backers with assault rifles forcing federal agents to retreat have become iconic in the battle over states' rights and federal authority.
A Section on 12/14/2016
*CORRECTION: Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons Ammon and Ryan, and two other defendants will be in the second group of 17 men being tried in federal court in Las Vegas for their role in an April 2014 armed standoff against federal agents. Their trial will begin 30 days after the end of the first trial in the case, which is set to begin Feb. 6. The Associated Press reported an incorrect trial date im this story.