RENO, Nev. (AP) —
U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say
they agree with a Nevada sheriff's position that
rancher Cliven Bundy must be held accountable for
his role in an April standoff between his supporters
and the federal agency.
Clark County Sheriff
Doug Gillespie said Bundy crossed the line when
he allowed states' rights supporters, including
self-proclaimed militia members, onto his property
to aim guns at police.
"If you step over that line, there are consequences
to those actions," Gillespie told the
Las Vegas Review-Journal. "And I believe they
stepped over that line. No doubt about it. They need
to be held accountable for it."
Bureau spokeswoman
Celia Boddington, in a statement released
Saturday to
The Associated Press, said the agency continues
to pursue the matter "aggressively through the
legal system."
"There is an ongoing investigation and we are
working diligently to ensure that those who broke
the law are held accountable," she said, declining
to elaborate.
The FBI declined comment Saturday on its
investigation. Bundy did not respond to a request
for comment.
The Bureau of Land Management says Bundy owes over
$1 million in fees and penalties for trespassing on
federal property without a permit over 20 years.
Bundy, whose ancestors settled in the area in the
late 1800s, refuses to acknowledge federal authority
on public lands.
A federal judge in Las Vegas first ordered Bundy in
1998 to remove "trespass cattle" from land the
bureau declared a refuge for the endangered desert
tortoise. Bureau officials obtained court orders
last year allowing the roundup.
Boddington disputed Gillespie's contention the
agency mishandled the roundup of Bundy's cattle 80
miles northeast of Las Vegas.
The bureau backed down during the showdown with
Bundy and his armed supporters, citing safety
concerns, and released some 380 Bundy cattle
collected during a weeklong operation from a vast
arid range half the size of the state of Delaware.
Gillespie blamed the bureau for escalating the
conflict and ignoring his advice to delay the
roundup after he had a confrontational meeting with
Bundy's children a few weeks before it began.
"I came back from that saying, 'This is not the time
to do this,' " the sheriff told the Review-Journal.
"They said, 'We do this all the time. We know what
we're doing. We hear what you're saying, but we're
moving forward.'"
Tensions further escalated early in the roundup
after a video showed one of Bundy's sons being
stunned with a Taser. The video drew militia members
and others to Bundy's ranch.
Bundy was not a hardened criminal, Gillespie told
the newspaper. He was a rancher who stopped paying
his fees, the sheriff said, and that was not worth
risking violence.
But Boddington said the bureau planned and conducted
the roundup in "full coordination" with Gillespie
and his office.
"It is unfortunate that the sheriff is now
attempting to rewrite the details of what occurred,
including his claims that the BLM did not share
accurate information," she said. "The sheriff
encouraged the operation and promised to stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with us as we enforced two
recent federal court orders."
"Sadly, he backed out of his commitment shortly
before the operation - and after months of joint
planning - leaving the BLM and the
National Park Service to handle the crowd
control that the sheriff previously committed to
handling," she added.
© 2014 Hearst Communications, Inc.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Sheriff-feds-Rancher-must-be-held-accountable-5602089.php