Ammon Bundy, a radical right-wing extremist known for leading the 2016 takeover of a federal wildlife reserve in Oregon, must pay over $50 million in damages for accusing a Idaho hospital of child trafficking and intimidating medical personnel, a jury has ruled.
The St. Luke’s Regional Health hospital was the target of defamatory remarks made by Bundy – who was also found guilty of harassing the facility’s medical personnel -, his associate Diego Rodriguez, and three of their linked groups, according to the verdict.
The case was filed after Rodriguez’s young grandson was briefly taken from his family and transported to the hospital due to health concerns. According to the Idaho Statesman newspaper, the emergency department doctor, Dr. Rachel Thomas, testified that the 10-month-old child’s stomach was swollen, his eyes were hollow, and he was unable to sit up, reminding her of very malnourished newborns she had treated in Haiti.
In response, Bundy and Rodriguez falsely alleged that the infant had been “kidnapped”, calling on their supporters to demonstrate outside the hospital and at the residences of those engaged in child protective services, police enforcement, and other parties. Q Anon allegations that St. Luke’s and the employees who took care of the baby grandchild were a part of a worldwide child sex trafficking ring were widely shared by Bundy and his adherents.
In a video he released on YouTube on Monday, Bundy, who refused to pay an attorney because he said it would be too expensive, denied that the baby had been abused and claimed medical workers and law police placed him in danger by separating him from his mother. According to Bundy, the infant was healthy other from having cyclic vomiting syndrome, which prevented him from swallowing anything beyond his mother’s breast milk.
The verdict was announced late on Monday after a ten-day civil trial in which Bundy did not appear and where St. Luke’s Hospital attorneys described what they called a widespread campaign of intimidation, bullying, and misinformation aimed at physicians and medical staff that they claim still exists today. A jury in Boise’s Ada County Courthouse awarded the hospital damages in excess of $50 million. The decision compelled Bundy to pay the plaintiffs $6.2 million in compensation damages and $6.15 million in punitive damages, and Rodriguez to pay $7 million in compensatory damages and $6.5 million in punitive damages. The People’s Rights Network, Freedom Man Press, and the Bundy campaign for governor received the remaining $52.5 million in damages.
An inquiry for comments after the jury’s verdict went unanswered by Bundy right away. However, in a Tuesday interview with KBOI News Talk radio, he claimed his innocence and referred to the civil trial as “illegitimate.”
In 2016, Bundy had overseen a 41-day armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge close to Burns, Oregon, in an effort to draw attention to the convictions of two ranchers for starting fires on federal property where they had been grazing their cattle. Criminal charges against Bundy were later dismissed.
