Oregon standoff prosecutors treating case like 'spaghetti western,' defendant argues

For Kenneth Medenbach, the government's federal conspiracy case against him and other defendants in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge plays like a spaghetti western. Prosecutors depict the FBI, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service staff and "the kind folks of Burns" as the "Forces of Good," Medenbach argues, while he, Ammon Bundy and the rest are the "Forces of Evil.'' "The Court cannot allow the government to turn this trial into a morality play,'' attorney Matthew Schindler wrote in a legal motion filed in federal court Wednesday. Medenbach is representing himself but Schindler was appointed as a "stand-by'' lawyer to help him if needed. Medenbach and co-defendants contend in newly filed court papers that the refuge occupation was a protest protected by their First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly and Second Amendment right to carry firearms for self-defense...more