Nevada rancher Cliven D. Bundy asked for a court-appointed attorney as he made his first appearance in federal court in Portland Thursday, following his arrest the night before at Portland International Airport.
Bundy, his thinning salt-and-pepper hair slicked back and wearing the standard blue jail garb, shuffled into the courtroom, chains at his ankles.
He pulled a pair of eyeglasses from a pocket of his jail shirt and spent nearly 30 minutes seated beside an assistant federal public defender, reviewing a 32-page federal complaint stemming from the 2014 standoff at his ranch in Nevada.
Assistant federal public defender Ruben Iniguez was appointed to represent Bundy for the day, but said his office could not continue to represent Bundy because it represents others in the case.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart directed Bundy to present a financial affidavit to the court before a court-appointed attorney is assigned.
"The court only appoints counsel for those who can't afford an attorney,'' Stewart said.
The federal complaint filed Thursday charges the Bundy patriarch with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, assault on a federal law enforcement officer, carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, obstruction of justice and interference with commerce by extortion.
Read federal complaint against Cliven Bundy
The complaint alleges that Bundy and unnamed co-conspirators organized and led a massive armed assault against federal law enforcement officers in and around Bunkerville, Nevada in April 2014 to thwart officers from seizing and removing 400 cattle that were in their lawful custody.
Bundy has refused to comply with four lawful court orders since 1993 that required him to pay fees to or obtain permits from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to graze cattle on public land, the complaint says. Bundy owes the agency $1 million in unpaid fees and penalties.
The federal government plans to seek Bundy's continued detention as a fight risk and danger to the community, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles F. Gorder Jr. told the court.
A detention hearing was set for next Tuesday at 1:30 p.m, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for next Friday.
Iniguez told the court that Bundy is in need of his prescription medication, noting that when he arrived at the downtown jail in Portland Wednesday night his blood pressure was dangerously high, recorded at 188 over 122.
The assistant federal public defender asked the judge if U.S. marshals could locate the carry-on bag Bundy had traveled to Portland with that held the medication. Iniguez said he understood that deputy marshals had looked for the medication but didn't find it, and asked that they look again.
The magistrate judge urged the defendant to go through the "normal course'' of getting evaluated by medical staff in the jail. The U.S. Marshals usually separate the medication that defendants have on them once they are booked into custody, Stewart said.
At some point, the senior Bundy is expected to be returned to Nevada to be prosecuted there on the federal charges stemming from the Nevada standoff, according to Oregon U.S. Attorney Billy Williams.
The senior Bundy's court appearance followed just a couple of hours after the last four holdouts at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge surrendered to authorities Thursday morning.
Bundy's two sons, Ammon Bundy, 40, and Ryan Bundy, 43, are in custody in Portland – two of now 25 indicted on a separate federal conspiracy charge stemming from the more than month-long armed takeover of the wildlife sanctuary outside of Burns in Harney County. They have said they occupied the refuge in protest of the re-sentencing of local ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steve Hammond and to show their opposition to federal control of public lands.
Cliven Bundy had traveled to Portland Wednesday night, intending to visit with his sons, participate in a news conference to decry their continued detention and possibly travel to Burns where the refuge takeover continued. Those plans were derailed when FBI agents took him into custody at 10:10 p.m. at the Portland airport.
A federal indictment naming seven more people associated with the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was unsealed Thursday.
Seven arrested Thursday in six states on the single federal conspiracy charge were Blaine Cooper, 36, of Dewey-Humboldt, Arizona; Corey Lequieu, 44, of Fallon, Nevada; Neil Wampler, 68, of Los Osos, California; Jason Charles Blomgren, 41, of Murphy, North Carolina; Darryl William Thorn, 31, of Marysville, Washington; Wesley Kjar, 32, of Manti, Utah; and Eric Lee Flores, 22, of Tulalip, Washington.
Each is scheduled to appear in federal courts Thursday or Friday in the jurisdictions where they were arrested, according to the Oregon U.S. Attorney's office. Two other unnamed defendants were also indicted but are still being sought.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian