Oregon Standoff Trial: Sheriff Details Threats

"We could not have violence or bloodshed in our community," is what Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said he told Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne when they visited him in his office last November.

Ward was describing the moment for jurors at the federal courthouse in Portland where Bundy and six others are on trial for charges stemming from the 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Payne pleaded guilty earlier this year.

Ward told jurors that Bundy and Payne had come to his office, imploring him to stop ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond from reporting to prison. The two men had pleaded guilty to setting fires on federal land.

Bundy and Payne told the sheriff that the men had been wrongly prosecuted and he was the only constitutional authority.

"I was told my responsibility was to prevent them from going to prison, and if I didn't do those things, they would bring hundreds of people to town to do my job for me,'' Ward said.

The sheriff testified that he urged the men to find find other ways to get their message across. He told jurors that he made it clear that he would not tolerate anything similar to what had happened in Bunkerville.

That was where armed supporters of Bundy's father Cliven successfully stood off against officers of the Bureau of Land Management. Cliven and Ammon — as well as several other members of their family — also face charges in Nevada related to that standoff.

Ward said that he told Ammon Bundy, with whom he talked at least four times before the takeover, that he would be held responsible if anything went wrong, since Ammon appeared to be taking a leadership role.

The sheriff testified that after he made it clear to Bundy that he would not stop the Hammonds from going to jail, Bundy's supporters started flooding his office with email.

One was from Neil Wampler, who is now a co-defendant with Bundy.

He wrote the sheriff that he would "see your county invaded by some of the most determined and organized and armed citizens alive in this country today. The Bundys have sent out a nationwide alert."

Ward testified that Bundy asked for another meeting and showed up on Nov. 19 with around 10 other men, most of them armed.

"You have one week, Sheriff," Ward testified that Bundy told him. "One week to do the right thing."

Ward told the jurors that he and a deputy stopped by a coffee shop in Burns on Dec. 29 where Bundy and his supporters were having a meeting to plan a protest for Jan. 2.

“I wanted to diffuse the situation before it began,” Ward testified.

He said he told Bundy that he was concerned about people "creating issues in town."

Ward said Bundy denied there would be problems.

Ward testified that he was skeptical, and in preparation for protest, he transferred inmates from his county to other facilities and moved all of his office's weapons and ammunition into the jail, which could serve as a bunker if needed.

He also told jurors that he instructed his deputies to stay away from the protest.

While the protest went smoothly, Ward said he was not happy with the takeover that followed.

Five days later, Ward met with Bundy on a road away from the refuge.

"I didn't go to pick a fight," Ward testified. "I wanted them to go home. I wanted them to realize there's appropriate channels to go through. An armed takeover isn't it."

Under cross examination, Ward testified that Bundy never actually threatened him. At the same time, the situation created something unusual.

"Culturally, it's not normal to have 100 people walking around with firearms around our streets," he said.

Under cross-examination by Ammon Bundy's lawyer, Marcus Mumford, Ward said that in the 2015 meetings with Bundy, the topic of the wildlife refuge never came up.

Mumford asked him several times if he had researched whether the Constitution allows the federal government to own land.

Several times, Ward said he hadn't, before finally saying, "I would say that 200 years of case law shows they can own land."

In the afternoon, the prosecution called Butch Eaton, Jr., a retired carpenter from Burns.

He told the jurors of going to a meeting with the occupiers to find out what they were doing in Burns.

"They answered the door, and I said, 'What the hell are you doing in my town," he told the jurors of his meeting in December with Ryan Payne, Jason Patrick, Corey Lequieu, Jon Ritzheimer, and Joseph O'Shaugnessy.

Eaton told jurors that he came to support the idea that the Hammonds had been wrongly prosecuted and agreed to participate the January 2 protest.

He said that he arrived at the Safeway parking lot after a six hour drive from his son's home in Scio where he had celebrated the holidays.

As things were winding down, Ryan Payne approached him and asked, "Are you ready to go?"

He testified that he got into a truck with Payne, Jason Patrick, and Corey Lequieu.