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Indictment charges 16 in rural Oregon takeover

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – The newly unsealed indictment against Ammon Bundy also charges 15 other people.

No new charges have been added.

All of the defendants named in the indictment are charged with one count of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States, a felony.

The indictment charges Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy, Jon Ritzheimer, Joseph O’Shaughnessy, Ryan Payne, Brian Cavalier, Shawna Cox, Peter Santilli, Jason Patrick, Duane Leo Ehmer, Dylan Anderson, Sean Anderson, David Fry, Jeff W. Banta, Sandra Lynn Pfeifer Anderson, and Kenneth Medenbach.

The indictment claims that the group “did knowingly and willfully conspire and agree together and with each other and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury to prevent by force, intimidation and threats, officers and employees of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service…from discharging the duties of their office at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.”

Prosecutors, through their filings, claim on Oct. 5, 2015, two of the “conspirators” traveled to Harney County to “warn the Harney County sheriff of ‘extreme civil unrest’ if certain demands were not met. The armed occupation at the refuge started Jan. 2, 2016, records show..

The indictment claims that in Nov. 2015, “defendants and conspirators” recruited and encouraged other individuals, in person and on social media, “to participate and assist” in the occupation.