Engle sentenced for standoff role

SANDPOINT — A Boundary County man was sentenced to 14 years in prison Thursday for his role in a 2014 standoff near the Nevada ranch of anti-government activist Cliven Bundy.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas imposed the sentence after he was found guilty last year of obstruction and traveling across state lines in aid of extortion.

Federal prosecutors argued for a 210-month term, calling Engle’s conduct “violent, serious and deadly.” They said Engel, 51, brandished a loaded AR-15-style rifle at law enforcement when Bureau of Land Management officials sought to impound cattle trespassing on federal lands in Bunkerville. Engel was among more than 200 protesters at the site, 40 of whom were armed, according to court records.

The government’s sentencing memo included an image of Engel in with the assault rifle in a low-ready position behind Jersey barriers on Interstate 15.

Engel argued he was defending the freedoms afforded under the U.S. Constitution, but U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson maintained that Engel flagrantly disrespected the supreme law of the nation.

“They became the law unto themselves by force of arms — what Engel and his fellow Bundy supporters could not achieve by the force of their intellect, they achieved by the force of their guns. Lacking any principled or moral content to the message, they used the content of the magazines they so proudly inserted into their rifles to make a point,” Elieson said in the government’s sentencing memo.

Engel’s defense counsel, Las Vegas attorney Warren Markowitz, portrayed the memo as dramatic and filled with creative license, but “absolutely deceptive.” Markowitz argued that were protected by the very laws the government is entrusted to uphold.

“Engel’s possession of a weapon during the protest was and is protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the state of Nevada where the event took place, and his actions, including the possession of the rifle, tactical vest and the magazines are protected non-verbal speech and allowed the protections of the First Amendment,” Markowitz said in the defense’s reply to the sentencing memo.

Engel did not address the court before the sentence was imposed, according to a Las Vegas Journal-Review news report about the hearing.

A judge dismissed charges earlier this year against Bundy, two of his sons and an independent militia leader related to the standoff related to Bundy’s unpaid grazing fees.

No one was injured.

Engel’s lawyer Warren Markowitz told the Las Vegas Review-Journal it’s “very frustrating” when Bundy and “core defendants have not paid a price for the actions that Todd is now sitting in jail for.”

He plans to appeal.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.