Oregon standoff: Sheriff's stance in LaVoy Finicum shooting draws outrage
BURNS — Militant leader Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, armed, angry and
facing arrest, shouted again and again to police who had stopped him
outside Burns that he needed to go see "the sheriff."
He felt only one man could protect him —
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer.
Finicum, 54, never reached John Day, where Palmer was waiting to
share the stage with the anti-government protesters who had taken over
the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in neighboring Harney County a month earlier.
Finicum was shot and killed by state troopers after the FBI said he
ignored demands to surrender, tried to elude pursuing officers and
crashed into a snowbank after swerving to miss a police roadblock.
In the days since the Jan. 26 shooting, Finicum's final words and
Palmer's response to the deadly confrontation have focused attention on
the sheriff who has openly challenged federal authority in his own
county.
Palmer took to social media to say he knew nothing about plans that
day to stop the occupation leaders and that he had not been at the
"ambush site."
His words drew a rebuke from the
Oregon State Sheriffs' Association,
concerned that his description would "only inflame an already tense
situation and incite further violence." The association's executive
committee is considering a citizen request that it investigate Palmer.
In the last week, Palmer has declined repeated interview requests from The Oregonian/OregonLive.
But he twice met with some of the occupation leaders earlier in the protest and supported the community meeting in John Day.
His reputation as a hardline critic of the federal government has
drawn strong support from some local loggers, ranchers and outdoor
enthusiasts who have defended Palmer in recent days. One militant
pledged online that 6,000 militia members would respond to Grant County
if the sheriff needed help.
Another Facebook poster called Palmer "a true American citizen" who
"did nothing wrong at all in my book by meeting with this nice crowd!"
Others in Grant County, who fear speaking publicly because of
Palmer's position, object to his apparent sympathy with the refuge
occupiers.
One critic, though, has gone public repeatedly to criticize Palmer's conduct.
Judy Schuette, a 30-year Grant County resident and retired school
secretary, bought an ad in the Blue Mountain Eagle weekly newspaper
demanding Palmer explain his actions. Schuette and others then organized
a demonstration against him and the refuge occupiers outside the
community meeting.
"His actions have been irresponsible with the very real danger of more violence," she wrote in a post.
Another indication that Palmer's conduct is dividing the community:
His former undersheriff announced last month that he would challenge
Palmer, who is seeking his fourth term.
Todd McKinley, who served nearly eight years under Palmer and now is
director of Grant County Community Corrections, said he was urged to run
by residents who don't feel Palmer represents them.
"They are ashamed of him," McKinley said, because of "the perceived
support of the militia, bringing the militia into our county, bringing
outside interests to our county."
***
Finicum obviously thought the sheriff was an ally.
Shawna Cox, who was riding in Finicum's pickup at the time of the shooting, said Palmer "has always been in support of us."
When Finicum saw police coming onto U.S. 395 behind them, he told
those in his truck, "We have to get to the sheriff," said Cox, who was
arrested and faces a federal conspiracy charge for the occupation.
Finicum felt threatened by the police and believed that Palmer "would be our protection," she said.
Palmer had already made clear to the militants that he shared their views about the federal government.
Ammon Bundy, who had participated in an armed standoff with federal
rangers in 2014 at the Nevada ranch of his father Cliven Bundy, claimed
from the start of the Jan. 2 refuge takeover that the U.S. Constitution
restricts how much land the federal government can own. Bundy asserted
that federal land in Harney County had to be turned over to private
owners or to county government.
Palmer supports a similar application of the constitutional provision
repeatedly cited by the occupiers — Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the provision doesn't establish such a
limit and that another provision gives broad authority for managing
federal lands.
Bundy and other protesters insisted that Dwight Hammond Jr. and his
son, Steven, were wrongly prosecuted by the federal government on arson
charges for lighting fires that burned federal land. They demanded that
the men be freed from prison.
In a Jan. 20 statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Palmer questioned
the court order requiring the Hammonds to return to prison a second
time to serve the rest of their five-year sentences. He urged an
examination of "why or how the federal government put the Hammonds in
jeopardy once, released them, and then placed them into jeopardy again."
He said in his statement that the refuge takeover could be resolved
if the federal government conceded to the militants. "Letting the
Hammonds free and making them whole would be a start," Palmer said.
About 10 days into the occupation, Ammon Bundy texted an invitation
to Palmer, inviting him to the wildlife refuge. Palmer said in his
statement that he learned Harney County Sheriff David Ward didn't want
him to go to the refuge, but instead wanted him go to Burns to denounce
the armed occupation. Palmer said he wouldn't do that.
"I am not in the business of shaming or humiliating anyone," Palmer said.
As the occupation wore on, sheriffs from around the state sent help
to Harney County, including the four neighboring counties of Lake,
Malheur, Crook and Deschutes. Law enforcement officials said the only
neighboring sheriff who didn't send help was Palmer.
Within days of Bundy's invitation, the occupiers sent a delegation to
John Day, where they had lunch with Palmer and then adjourned to a
private conference room with him and about a dozen local residents.
Palmer has said he didn't know the occupiers would be at the lunch.
He later met with takeover leaders a second time, though he has
refused to provide any information about that session. But the occupiers
have, including Ryan Payne, a self-described militiaman from Montana.
Payne had been involved in the Bundy ranch standoff. He later said he
helped organize civilian snipers, who took aim at federal agents. If
the agents made a wrong move, "every single BLM agent in that camp
would've died," he told a newspaper in his home state.
After meeting with Palmer in John Day, Payne said in an interview
that the sheriff's views about the federal government meshed with those
of the protesters.
Joining Payne for one of those meetings was protester Jon Ritzheimer,
an Arizona man notorious for harsh anti-Muslim comments he made last
year.
On a Facebook post, Ritzheimer called Palmer a "fine man." Ritzheimer
wrote that he would respond if Palmer needed help "to protect his
citizens from an intrusive tyrannical government."
Ritzheimer said that after meeting with Palmer, the sheriff "pulled
out a very nice copy of the Constitution that he keeps in his chest
pocket and he asked me and Ryan Payne to sign it."
After Finicum's shooting, Palmer took to Facebook to defend Finicum
against allegations circulating on social media that he was found with a
stolen gun. The FBI has said Finicum had a loaded 9mm handgun in his
pocket when he was killed, but hasn't said anything about its ownership.
The sheriff wrote that Finicum had been "through the wringer of state
agencies" overseeing the foster children he cared for in Arizona. "I
could positively, without a shadow of a doubt say that possessing a
stolen gun is not and was not in this man's vocabulary," Palmer wrote.
During the traffic stop, Finicum repeatedly yelled at police that the
group had a meeting with Palmer. Because Palmer isn't answering media
questions, it's not known whether he had agreed to meet with the
militants separately from their joint appearance at the John Day
community meeting.
Palmer didn't respond to interview requests and said via email that
he wouldn't respond to written questions sent to him from The
Oregonian/OregonLive.
"I am not obligated to respond to you," Palmer wrote last week. "I do not have anything to say to you."
***
Palmer was the first "sheriff of the year" selected by the
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.
The national association defines the constitutional sheriff as "the
last line of defense between the overreaching federal government and
your constitutionally guaranteed rights." The association says on its
website that sheriffs "have the authority and duty to stop state and
federal enforcement of laws repugnant to the constitutions."
Palmer has drawn such a line in Grant County, where more than half
the land is in federal ownership. Palmer has opposed orders closing U.S.
Forest Service roads for conservation and expense reasons.
He deputized 11 citizens without public notice to create a plan for
managing the forest. And he has declared that the Forest Service has no
authority to enforce laws on the Malheur National Forest without his
permission.
"Your jurisdiction as I see it is limited in nature to the federal
building in John Day," Palmer wrote in a March 31, 2011, letter to the
national forest's supervisor.
Palmer, 54, has long been closely tied to the national forest even
outside his police duties. He's been a member of the local snowmobiling
club that grooms hundreds of miles of forest roads for snowmobilers.
He's on the board of a youth camp that leases a Forest Service compound.
An Air Force veteran, Palmer has spent his entire police career in
Grant County, starting as a part-time jailer in 1985 and then becoming a
patrolman. He ran for sheriff in 2000 but was appointed to the job when
the incumbent died days before the election.
The Jan. 26 community meeting with Finicum and the other key figures
of the refuge occupation was billed in part as a presentation on how to
limit the federal government's role in Palmer's county. They had earlier
conducted a similar meeting in the Harney County community of Crane,
where Payne and Ammon Bundy lectured the audience on their
interpretation of the Constitution.
The shooting occurred in Harney County roughly 90 minutes before the
John Day session was to start, but Palmer had no advance notice that the
FBI and state police planned to round up almost all the occupation
leaders, according to law enforcement officials and people who talked
with Palmer.
Brooke Agresta — who identifies herself as the intelligence officer
for 3% Idaho, a self-styled patriot group — said in an interview that
she learned of the shooting from a "community member" trying to get to
John Day for the meeting. The community member encountered a police
roadblock on U.S. 395 and was told there had been a shooting but
received no details.
Agresta, who was in the Burns area before and after the occupation,
said she texted Palmer and then called him to see what he knew. When she
asked about a shooting, Palmer responded, "What are you talking about?"
Jim Carpenter, the
Grant County district attorney,
said Palmer then grabbed him in a hallway of the meeting space to share
what he knew. Carpenter asked him to go along when the sheriff said he
was heading out.
Carpenter said he and Palmer encountered state police setting up a
roadblock at the edge of the rural town of Seneca on the highway.
Carpenter said Palmer retrieved his shotgun from his patrol SUV when
troopers warned that someone was walking toward them with a gun.
That turned out to be a photographer from The Oregonian/OregonLive,
who was carrying a tripod. But photos of Palmer at the scene with his
shotgun later triggered rumors in John Day and on social media that
Palmer had helped set up the militants for arrest.
Some mistakenly believed the photo was taken at the shooting scene, a
claim that prompted Palmer to state that he had not been to the "ambush
site."
Daniel Kenoyer, shown on Palmer's personal Facebook page as a friend,
two days later posted his account of a conversation with Palmer.
He quoted Palmer as saying he had "no idea of the ambush" and that "I
took no part in killing LaVoy Finicum." Palmer didn't respond to
written questions about the reported exchange.
Carpenter said he and the sheriff stayed at the roadblock about 20
minutes but could learn no information from troopers about what had
happened. Then while there, Carpenter said, he received the FBI press
release on his phone that disclosed the shooting and arrests of the
occupation leaders.
The two decided to return to John Day.
"OSP was telling us there was nothing we could do to help at the roadblock," Carpenter said.
Palmer dropped off the prosecutor at home and, according to
witnesses, returned to the community meeting where he gathered outside
with supporters of the occupiers.
***
Palmer's dubbing of Finicum's shooting as an ambush prompted the rare
censure from the state sheriffs' association, a 100-year-old group
representing Oregon's 36 elected county sheriffs.
"This was in no way an ambush," the association said in a statement
to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "This was a carefully planned high-risk
vehicle stop by highly trained officers and was implemented to take into
custody armed persons who had openly engaged in a variety of criminal
activities."
The association said that if Finicum and others had "given up
peacefully, no shots would have been fired and no blood would have been
spilled."
Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs'
Association, said sheriffs generally "don't get into the nuancing of
what you might say is after-the-event quarterbacking."
He declined to address Palmer's conduct, but said that "anybody who
comments on an event, an investigation, an incident should make certain
they know all of the facts and have all of the insights into the
decisions that were made."
The state sheriffs' association said, "We do not know of any request
from Sheriff Palmer to talk to anyone who was involved in the incident."
Last Friday, the association released a statement on its website
condemning the refuge occupiers as "militia men and women (who) have
broken into publicly owned buildings, disrespected Native American
heritage and intimidated and harassed local residents and officials."
The statement also pointedly took issue with any supporters.
"These men and women are asking for change, and we support their
right to challenge our government to make change," it says. "However,
we do not agree with or support any citizen or elected official who
would advocate for change in a manner that includes illegal action,
threats of violence, or violence against any citizen of the United
States."
The occupation continues with four holdouts who have refused to leave without immunity. Each faces a federal conspiracy charge.
Last week, Stewart Rhodes, the founder and president of the national
Oath Keepers patriot
group, went online to chide occupiers for picking Harney County as the
place to make their stand. He noted that Ward, the local sheriff, was
"your enemy."
Rhodes said that group instead "could have easily gone instead to a county with a stronger sheriff."
Such as, he said, Sheriff Glenn Palmer.
--
Les Zaitz
@leszaitz
