Judge Orders Malheur Occupation Leader Ryan Payne Back Into Custody In Oregon

U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown on Tuesday ordered Malheur occupation leader Ryan Payne back into custody in Oregon. A day earlier, Payne and members of the Bundy family were handed a stunning legal victory in Las Vegas in a separate case. Payne must report to the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Portland by noon Thursday, Brown ruled from the bench. “We need to return him to the position he was in when he went to Nevada,” Brown said during a court hearing Tuesday. Payne is currently on pretrial release in Las Vegas and subject to GPS monitoring. U.S. Marshals previously transported Payne to Nevada to face charges related to a 2014 armed standoff between the Bureau of Land Management, ranchers and members of the Bundy family. Payne was granted pretrial release in December after it surfaced that prosecutors had withheld information from defendants. The only reason Payne was released, rather than being held in pretrial custody, was that he was “preparing his joint defense with other defendants,” Brown said Tuesday. “Now that no longer exists.”...more