U.S. | Thu Feb 9, 2017 | 6:14am EST

First trial set to begin over 2014 rural Nevada armed standoff

By John L. Smith | LAS VEGAS

Opening statements were to begin on Thursday in the first of three trials over an armed standoff in 2014 at the rural Nevada property of Cliven Bundy, a rancher who has achieved celebrity status in the West in his opposition to government land policy.

Bundy’s decades-long fight with the U.S. government over unpaid grazing fees came to a head in March 2014 when Bureau of Land Management officials attempted to enforce a court-ordered roundup of hundreds of his cattle on a desert range 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The move drew hundreds of supporters to the family’s Bunkerville ranch. The six men going on trial have been described by prosecutors as Bundy's "gunmen and followers."

By April 12, the six had arrived from Arizona, Idaho and Montana “armed with assault rifles and other firearms,” the indictment said. They are accused of a conspiracy to recover Bundy's cattle “by force, threats and intimidation.”

All six have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, weapons, assault and other charges. Although Gregory Burleson, O. Scott Drexler, Todd Engel, Richard Lovelien, Eric Parker, and Scott Stewart are considered by the court to be the lowest level of the 17 defendants in the three separate trials, prosecutors hope to benefit from a series of photographs, some published widely, of at least one of them pointing a rifle at federal officers.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]