Posted on 10/29/2016 1:46:56 PM PDT by abb
When U.S. Marshals physically subdued attorney Marcus Mumford at the finale of the Oregon militants' trial, the encounter created a buzz across the legal community with experts saying they'd never seen anything similar happen before.
Marshals tackled and used a Taser on Mumford, Ammon Bundy's defense lawyer, following the Oregon standoff leader's acquittal in the federal conspiracy case Thursday. The agency said in a news release Friday that Mumford had become "upset and aggressive" in court after the jury verdict.
The federal agency is conducting a review of the marshals' actions, according to Thadd Baird, supervising deputy of the U.S. Marshals Service. But he declined to discuss any further specifics about the highly unusual use of force.
"The overwhelming consensus in legal circles is that any kind of altercation between law enforcement and lawyers in a courtroom is virtually unheard of," said Kateri Walsh, spokeswoman for the Oregon State Bar. "It just doesn't happen."
Mumford had been arguing that his client should be released from custody immediately, but U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown said Bundy had a hold on him from a pending federal indictment in Nevada.
Mumford yelled at the judge, and suddenly six to seven marshals closed in on him, surrounding the attorney at the defense table. The judge told them to move back, but soon after, the marshals grabbed Mumford.
They yelled at Mumford to stop resisting while the judge ordered everyone out of the courtroom.
The encounter was the culmination of a trial that included several contentious moments between Mumford and Brown. At one point last month, Brown threatened Mumford with contempt of court if he continued asking questions about the fatal police shooting of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum.
The Marshals service provides security in U.S. District Court. Mumford was arrested Thursday by the Federal Protective Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security. He was cited on accusations of failing to comply with a federal lawful order and causing a disturbance and given a Jan. 6 court date.
Mumford was released from custody nearly two hours later and spoke to reporters outside the federal courthouse. One asked whether Mumford believed the marshals acted appropriately.
"No!" the Utah-based attorney replied. He could not be reached for comment Friday.
The description of Thursday's events also led other lawyers to question whether the marshals had been too heavy-handed.
"My understanding is he just raised his voice," said Carrie Leonetti, a University of Oregon law professor who previously worked as a federal public defender in California.
Leonetti said the marshals likely considered the number of people in the courtroom before taking action, but also questioned their using a weapon against the lawyer.
"They need to be proportional to the threat," she said.
Leonetti said it would be more common for an attorney who wasn't following orders to be held in contempt, not taken down.
"I cannot think of a time when courtroom security officers have used force against a lawyer," she said.
Leonetti said the marshals' actions have an "unfortunate appearance of retaliation," but she believes their response came from training.
"The optics of tackling the lawyer who won – the optics of that are unfortunate in any situation," Leonetti said.
Tung Yin, a Lewis & Clark Law School professor, also said he'd never heard of force being used against an attorney in court.
"I would say it is multiple standards of deviation away from the norm," he said.
Yin said the courtroom scene appeared to highlight how invested Mumford had become in his client's case – he shouted arguments instead of putting them in writing.
Prisoners in Nevada, at least, were paying attention, according to Deb Jordan, a self-described advocacy journalist who is the girlfriend and business partner of Pete Santilli.
Santilli was initially charged in the Oregon standoff case, but prosecutors dropped their conspiracy indictment against him the day before trial. He has a pending case in Nevada and is being held in jail there.
Jordan said she spoke to Santilli about how the inmates in Nevada reacted to authorities using a Taser on and arresting Mumford.
"They all just started laughing," she said. "Fight to the end! Never say die! It's been such a circus from the beginning. They just kind of chuckled and said, "Perfect ending.'"
Maxine Bernstein and Carli Brosseau of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
-- Rebecca Woolington
rwoolington@oregonian.com
503-294-4049; @rwoolington
Well it was overt retaliation and the fact that the judge allowed it is beyond the pale.
Revelations next week should be interesting.
FRiend, I’m telling you, Trump might win and I believe he’ll prove as capable as Ike.
Frankly, I think he will win despite all of the voter fraud and trickery.
Please be willing to consider that I might possibly be right about this.
But if I’m wrong, I’ll agree with you.
I’ll quit bothering to vote.
I’ll quit researching ‘current events’.
~~~
Win-lose-or-draw my ping list will get mothballed for weeks or months on end at best after this election like I’ve done in the past.
I’ll be more devoted to ‘weird news’, history, and my fiction writing career.
Transition time.
BUT ...
Only a few days left, and I will NOT be on the sidelines.
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The personnel of the governments of this country are in total contempt of the will of the people.
Trump would have to fire the entire Fed Gov (including the Secret Service).
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[quote]
I’ve seen it happen twice. Once when a judge had a tantrum and declared direct contempt of court, and ordered the bailiff to take the attorney into custody.
Second was after multiple hearings brought to light that an attorney had destroyed evidence during a criminal proceeding, and the attorney was ordered into court and taken into custody for constructive contempt of court.
In each case the protocol was judge’s orders, carried out in an orderly manner with minimal force.
This smacks of state terrorism, ala Waco. Most attorneys are physical cowards. This will put a lot of them back into submissive default positions.
My observations were in state, not federal, courts. If anything, federal proceedings are even more staid and formal.
— anonymous
Mark
I hope you don’t have inside info on the Secret Service. I had the pleasure of talking with a member of the S.S. one time. A wonderful gentleman. Kid of a single mom, I also had a Big Brother who was an FBI agent. Amazing and great guy.
The Secret Service calls Hillary’s plane ‘Broomstick One’.
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The one and only job of the Secret Service is to protect the monetary system from all threats.
They do consider Trump to be a threat. I hope he has adequate private security.
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I don’t think she did enough.
It may be that they just went for it on their own, but she should have yelled stop as they wrestled him down and tased him. That didn’t happen in a microsecond.
It’s unheard of. My father was a government attorney and I can tell you that defense lawyers pushing the envelope is SOP. Watched it many times.
The cops are supposed to stay in the background, it’s an argument between the attorneys and the judges.
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She ordered them to stand back.
They were clearly in contempt of her authority.
To whom could she have given an order to place them in restraint?
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The Marshalls and the Judge were pissed off because the defendants were acquitted. They took out their frustrations out on the lawyer until they got Bundy away from the public eye. Then they beat the hell out of him. I bet Bundy’s ribs, arms, and legs are still sore.
The lawyer was very fortunate that he got off without being seriously injured.
You can say that again.
‘The one and only job of the Secret Service is to protect the monetary system from all threats.’
They also handle security.
Sounds like the Marshalls were worried about the judge’s safety. I would have to see the entire thing to judge. Seems like they could have gotten between the two and defused the situation in better fashion.
As for Lavoy, he acted like a fool for weeks, bragged about always being armed and said he wouldn’t be arrested without a fight. Then he committed suicide by cop. He is no hero, was no help to the cause and sounded mentally disturbed during the prelude to his useless demise.
I also suspect that the marshals didn’t expect jury nullification. Probably blindsided and had no papers at the moment to hold the no-longer-accused — just my guess. Otherwise they would have shown it to the defense attorney and ‘end of story’.
‘Sounds like the Marshalls were worried about the judge’s safety.’
The judge told them to stand back. The judge’s bailiff is what the judge resorts to if someone in the courtroom gets out of hand.
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Only because it is a threat to the system.
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Why didn’t the marshals simply present the papers the defense attorney asked for?
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“If there’s a detainer show me,” Mumford stood, arguing before the judge.
Suddenly a group of about six U.S. Marshals surrounded Mumford at his defense table. The judge directed them to move back but moments later, the marshals grabbed on him.
[snip]
recapping the Oregon Stanoff Trial ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3485843/posts
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