Feds, state and Harney County officials urge judge to dismiss wrongful death lawsuit filed by widow of Robert ‘LaVoy’ Finicum

A string of lawyers representing the FBI, the state and Harney County officials all urged a judge Friday to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Robert “LaVoy’’ Finicum, the spokesman of the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. They argued that the suit contains broad and vague allegations and that the widow’s lawyer neglected to properly serve notice to several of the defendants...The lawsuit claims Finicum was shot "assassination style'' by "one or more militarized officers of the Oregon State Police and/or FBI'' as he was trying to leave Harney County on Jan. 26, 2016, during the refuge takeover. It contends the defendants engaged in "widespread and systemic corruption'' and the "premeditated targeting'' of Finicum because of his association with Cliven Bundy and his family, Finicum’s membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Finicum’s political views and activism critical of federal land management and the BLM. Attorney J. Morgan Philpot, who represents Jeanette Finicum, said the plaintiffs have evidence of an “animus that was carried over between two friends who worked together since 2009,’’ referring to Love and Bretzing. Bretzing had served as an assistant agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City office from 2007 through 2012, when Love worked in Utah for the BLM. Love was the agent in charge of the federal roundup of Cliven Bundy’s cows in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014, over unpaid grazing fees. Philpot briefly mentioned a statement made by a BLM whistleblower Larry Wooten, who told federal investigators that his supervisors at the land bureau in Nevada appeared to be “personally offended’’ by the Bundys. “The office narrative that evolved was that there needs to be an officer involved shooting to make these types of people get the message,’’ the statement read, according to papers filed in the Cliven Bundy case in Nevada. The government is appealing the dismissal of charges against Cliven Bundy in Nevada, a case pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...MORE