Chaotic scene when Ammon Bundy arrested as no show for trial after refused entry for not wearing a mask

Anti-government activist Ammon Bundy showed up Monday for trial in Idaho but was refused entry into the courthouse because he wasn’t wearing a mask.

Subsequently, the judge issued a warrant and Bundy was arrested as a no show to his trial as he stood on the doorstep of the building. The irony being that when taken into custody, officers took Bundy into the building without a mask.

Bundy was due in court at 8:15 a.m. to face charges of misdemeanor trespassing and resisting arrest from an August incident at the Idaho Statehouse, NBC News reported — masks are required to enter courthouses in the state, per the Idaho Supreme Court.

“Mr. Bundy today refused to wear a mask to come into the courthouse and thus was not granted admission,” Steven Hippler, administrative judge for the Fourth Judicial District, told NBC News.

Surrounded by supporters, chaos ensued when Bundy and another defendant, Aaron Schmidt, were arrested. A dramatic video shared on Bundy’s YouTube page captured the scene:

Supporters tried to lock arms to prevent deputies from arresting Bundy and Schmidt, to no avail.

One of the supporters, 69-year-old Casey Baker, was reportedly arrested for felony battery on a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor resisting arrest.

More on Bundy’s case from KTVB 7:

Bundy’s criminal case stems from an incident during the special session of the Idaho Legislature in August, during which he and two others refused to leave the Lincoln Auditorium in the Idaho Statehouse after a hearing was switched to another part of the building and Idaho State Police troopers told them to leave. When he refused to get out of his swivel chair, troopers rolled the chair out of the building and arrested him.

Von Schmidt, who also refused to leave the committee room, was arrested at the same time.

Bundy returned the next day, but was served with a no-trespassing notice as he was sitting in the Senate gallery. He again refused to leave, and was arrested a second time on trespassing and resisting arrest charges. Those charges were later dismissed.

 

Bundy was first in the news in 2014, when his father, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, had an armed showdown with the federal Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights for his cattle.

In 2016, he took part in an armed standoff with his father at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon — it was during that event that LaVoy Finicum, was shot and killed during a traffic stop.

Though indicted by a federal grand jury, Bundy was acquitted of firearms charges and conspiracy to impede federal workers.

Monday was not the first time Bundy was involved in an incident regarding a mask.

In October 2020, Bundy tried to attend an Idaho high school football game his son was playing in. The game would be stopped at halftime when Bundy refused to wear a mask or leave campus.

His son’s school did not require masks, but his team was the visiting team at another high school.

“I have a strong belief in my right to choose to wear a mask or not,” Bundy said at the time, according to NBC News. “And If they think somehow there’s a safety issue, then they need to section off a part of the bleachers to accommodate for those of us who believe differently than others.”

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