Oregon standoff defendant Jake Ryan detained until trial

Refuge occupier Jake Ryan will remain in a Portland jail pending trial despite assurances from a Montana sheriff that he would keep an eye on him if returned to that state. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Papak said Thursday he might have granted pre-trial release had Ryan surrendered last month after learning that a grand jury had returned an indictment against him. Instead, Ryan became a fugitive until his arrest Tuesday in Clark County, Washington. “The fact that you went into hiding — into hiding armed — causes me great concern,” Papak said. Ryan traveled to Oregon in January with four firearms and served as a guard. His attorney, Jesse Merrithew, asked the judge to let Ryan return to Montana pending trial. He stressed that Ryan has no criminal record, and Sheriff Tom Rummel of Sanders County fully supported having Ryan return to Plains, something he wouldn’t want if Ryan were a problem. Merrithew said the sheriff told him that if Ryan ran, “he would track him down himself.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel countered that Rummel is a friend of Ryan’s family, failed to find him during the month he went into hiding and is not entirely cooperative with federal law enforcement. “If he’s released, law enforcement is unlikely to find him again,” Gabriel said...more