BURNS, OR - JANUARY 07: Dwayne Ehmer carries an American flag as he rides his horse on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 7, 2016 near Burns, Oregon. An armed anti-government militia occupied the headquarters there as to protest the jailing of two ranchers for arson.
But his lawyer, with the help of the Department of Justice, was granted a motion to delay until next month. In the meantime, they're trying to move the case to federal court, where the charges could be dropped.Snodgrass's arrest and later criminal indictment occurred after a controlled burn he led on federal land near a highway in the eastern Oregon mountains jumped to private land and burned 20 acres.
Snodgrass called the police for help, Alonzo says. By the time the sheriff arrived the fire had spread to private land. He ended up handcuffing Snodgrass and arresting him for reckless burningIt's not that unusual for a prescribed fire to accidentally spread to private land, especially if unpredicted winds kick up. Landowners are typically compensated, but an arrest appears unprecedented.There are federal protections for federal employees doing their jobs," Alonzo says.
The setting of the arrest can't be ignored. Like much of the natural resource-dependent rural West, eastern Oregon has a long history of mistrust of the federal government. Grant County once petitioned Congress to take control of all the federal lands inside the county. In 2002, voters also overwhelmingly supported an apparent symbolic citizen initiative to keep the United Nations out of eastern Oregon.
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