Prosecutor Asks Ranching Standoff Jury to Use Common Sense

By STEVEN DUBOIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS PORTLAND, Ore. — Oct 19, 2016, 4:44 AM ET

The trial of a man who led a standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge has raised many complicated issues, some of them political.

But federal prosecutor Ethan Knight told a jury Tuesday during closing arguments that the case comes down to common sense and one simple fact: "They made a choice to take over someone else's workplace."

Ammon Bundy and six co-defendants have been charged with conspiring to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by seizing the refuge Jan 2 and occupying it for 41 days.

Knight reminded jurors the case isn't about land policy in the U.S. West, a 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch or what Ammon Bundy considered to be an unjust sentence for two ranchers convicted of arson.

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"They decided to pick and choose the rules and laws that apply and take over property that didn't belong to them," Knight said.

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