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RANGE Magazine, Winter 2020-The Jackbook File: Looking for Justice

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RANGE Magazine, Winter 2020-The Jackbook File: Looking for Justice WI20 10.12 pm.qxp__ Spirit 1-95.q 10/14/19 10:20 AM Page 72 “I spent an entire month at that trial,” THE JACKBOOT FILE: Jeanette says. “Of the 30 officers who testified, only one went off their script and told the truth. But I learned a lot. I learned that the LOOKING FOR JUSTICE FBI was in charge of the entire operation. It was the FBI who ordered no body cameras, The real story of LaVoy Finicum has yet to be told. no audio and no video. The FBI’s 40-year trainer testified that multiple protocols were By Patricia Aiken broken on multiple levels of government that night. An FBI supervisor who was in charge at the first stop when LaVoy’s truck and he mainstream media has had nearly alleges: “These defendants were mentally pre- Ammon Bundy’s driver were pulled over tes- four years to correct the lie that rancher disposed and committed to using excessive tified that the occupants of the truck were in Tand therapeutic foster parent LaVoy lethal force, to solve a political dispute. The compliance with the orders being given to Finicum was reaching for a loaded handgun result has been both haunting and tragic,” them. Then ‘Oregon State Police Officer #1’ when he was gunned down by government contending the defendants engaged in “wide- fired a round into LaVoy’s truck.” agents on U.S. Hwy. 395 outside Burns, Ore. spread and systemic corruption” and “pre- Jeanette continues: “The supervisor testi- In the snow, with his hands in the air, LaVoy meditated targeting.” fied that shot escalated the entire situation. It was shot three times in the back. Yet the false The preliminary hearings are being held was at that time that Shawna Cox turned on narrative persists, with Wikipedia the ugliest in Portland; however, Finicum lawyers have her camera. I also learned that ‘Officer #1’ and rejecting numerous corrections. RANGE been successful in moving the trial venue radioed ‘Officer #2’ a mile ahead at the kill readers will recall that the occupation of the from the liberal stronghold to more rural zone: ‘You’re going to have to kill Finicum.’ Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by Ammon Pendleton. A judge has yet to rule on which There wasn’t even a warrant. A warrant wasn’t Bundy, LaVoy Finicum and signed the next morning others was in response to the after LaVoy was murdered. federal government sending My husband was never ranchers Dwight and Steven given due process, which is Hammond back to prison. every American’s right.” Their crime? Burning less Even so, this grandmoth- than 150 acres of brush on er of 35 is cautiously opti- land they have range rights to mistic about her wrongful in order to save their ranch death suit. “Faith in peo- and range from a wildfire. ple” and the jury system is The Hammonds were con- what she’s counting on. victed under the Antiterror- © THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. “This isn’t just about ism and Death Penalty Act of LaVoy. Due process matters 1996. [Check “Enemies of the to each of us.” State,” rangemagazine.com.] The occupants of LaVoy’s LaVoy’s widow, Jeanette, truck that fateful night were and eldest daughter, Thara Shawna Cox, Ryan Bundy Tenney, have spent the years and Victoria Sharp. Shawna since attempting to maintain and Ryan do not share any his honor and integrity. optimism about the federal Jeanette is on the road two to three weeks a defendants will be dismissed. Jeanette expects court system. They were terrorized by likely month touring the country speaking and the court to open discovery and possibly set more than 100 rounds of ammo fired into the showing the documentary “LaVoy: Dead Man an upcoming trial date in January 2020. truck that are now known to have been non- Talking,” produced by filmmaker Mark Herr, FBI elite forces member Joseph Astarita lethal. Ryan took a bullet in his shoulder. Both the president for the Center for Self-Gover- has already been tried and acquitted on Shawna and Ryan have withdrawn from their nance. With assistance from Mark, she’s rais- charges of lying about firing his weapon. The civil cases. In spite of an epic win in Portland, ing funds to take her husband’s wrongful FBI stated there were only six lethal shots Shawna explains: “We just can’t get any evi- death case to trial. Defendants are the United fired. It wasn’t until the Deschutes County dence admitted. I don’t feel like we can win.” States, FBI, BLM, Daniel P. Love, Salvatore Sheriff’s Department conducted an indepen- Thara has written “Liberty Rising: One Lauro, former Nevada senator Harry Reid, FBI dent investigation, syncing the FBI videos Cowboy’s Ascent: The murder of LaVoy agent in charge Greg Bretzing, Officer Joseph with Shawna Cox’s video, that two other Finicum as told by his daughter.” Her inten- Astarita, Gov. Katherine Brown, Sen. Ron lethal shots were found which pointed to tion was to preserve the history for her chil- Wyden, Harney County Sheriff David Ward Astarita. Astarita testified he couldn’t recall if dren’s future adult questions, provide a and Commissioner Steven Grasty, plus the he fired and another officer lied that he may works-cited resource for people who have Center for Biological Diversity and John Does have fired and also couldn’t recall, which put questions, and finally, the most pressing mat- 1-100, to cover unnamed officers. The suit reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. ter, to fund-raise for the obligatory fees of the 72 • RANGE MAGAZINE • WINTER 2019/2020 WI20 10.12 pm.qxp__ Spirit 1-95.q 10/14/19 10:20 AM Page 73 VIA INTERNET Aerial video released by the FBI on Jan. 28, 2016, shows Robert LaVoy Finicum stepping out of his white pickup truck in heavy snow, hands up, at a state police/FBI roadblock on January 26, near Burns, Ore. Authorities said the 54-year-old Arizona rancher, who acted as a spokesman for the occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, was reaching for a weapon when he was killed. His friends in the car said he was shot in the back and only reaching for the pain on his left side. Finicum was right handed. OPPOSITE: Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, center, a rancher from Arizona, talks to reporters at the refuge near Burns, Ore., on Jan. 5, 2016. civil case. Thara says her siblings “are each Interior. I feel this change allowed me to get he quietly left without her. He explained later healing in their own ways but feel trauma- the grazing permit back. I had to pay fines that he had left her at home for her safety. tized whenever they go to the ranch” which is they’d levied against LaVoy and there was an When I went to Oregon, after LaVoy hugged located on the Arizona Strip, 50 miles north issue with a water permit. When we pur- and thanked me for coming, he immediately of the Grand Canyon. The wedding of chased the property the deed included 50 per- took me upstairs and showed me where to youngest daughter Tean (tee- stay if there was any trouble. ann) last year stirred mixed “You’re going to have to kill Finicum.” Our children went to Oregon to emotions. Tean, 21, and her hus- spend a few days with him but band, Philip Cluff, work the There wasn’t even a warrant. after hearing that a raid was ranch while Jeanette is away. being planned, LaVoy sent them “Before my husband was killed, in Sep- home for their safety within two hours of tember of 2015, he sent a statement to the U.S. their arrival. He never wanted women on the Department of Interior notifying them that he front line.” VIA INTERNET was no longer going to sign a contract with the With LaVoy murdered and the Bundys BLM. The current contract was in force until and their supporters in prison shortly after, a May of 2019. They refused to acknowledge the stand against the BLM would have been nei- regulation that heirs have a two-year period to ther prudent nor practical. Everyone must acquire the permits. They told me, ‘That per- choose their battles. The Finicums have cho- mit died with your husband. Mrs. Finicum, sen the wrongful death legal battle to preserve you may own it but you can’t run your cows cent of the water in a spring. The BLM tried due process for everyone. on it.’ I continued to graze my cattle until that to say that we only had 50 percent of the Dwight and Steven Hammond served July but my children pled with me, ‘Mom, we water for seven months. I own this water 12 three years and four years, respectively, in don’t want to lose you too.’ months out of the year. I’m glad I stuck to my federal prison until they received a full par- “Initially, I moved the cattle to a feedlot guns and they took the seven-month lan- don from President Donald Trump. This which, of course, was expensive. Had it not guage off the permit.” restored their 10-year grazing permit; howev- been for so many Americans sending me Although LaVoy agreed with Bundy’s er, several environmental groups quickly filed truckloads of hay, I wouldn’t have been able constitutional stance and had notified the suit against the BLM in federal court oppos- to survive that time.
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