Ada County Magistrate Judge Annie McDevitt found Independent candidate for Idaho Governor Ammon Bundy guilty today and he was booked into Ada County Jail. Bundy, an anti-government extremist best known for armed standoffs at his family’s Nevada ranch and Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge, refused to complete 40 hours of public service related to his July 2021 trespassing conviction at the Idaho Capitol. Bundy was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon and sentenced to serve 10 days in jail with a $3,000 fine.
This case started in February when Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Whitney Welsh issued a motion to hold Bundy accountable for not completing his sentenced public service hours. The court gave Bundy until January 1, 2022, to complete his service.
Bundy disagreed with the motion, arguing that his campaign work satisfied the community service mandate. On November 29, his campaign treasurer submitted a letter on official campaign letterhead claiming that Bundy had “completed 1,621 hours of public service.”
Judge McDevitt was not convinced.
“The whole point of public service is to give back to the community in ways that do not serve yourself. Clearly, working for your own campaign is self-serving work,” she told Bundy.
In an effort to show the judge that Bundy must be held accountable, Prosecutor Welsh presented a number of videos during Bundy’s court appearance displaying him confronting state workers outside the Southwest District Health (SWDH) building and the Idaho State Police at the state Capitol in 2020. Another video showed Bundy threatening law enforcement officers during his 2021 trespassing arrest.
“I’ll come after you, each one of you, personally,” Bundy tells the officers in the video.
Just last month, Bundy exposed a female judge’s home address and called on his national militia supporters to go to her house in protest. Judge McDevitt condemned these actions and accused him of using his leadership and influence to bully and harass people.
Representing himself at the contempt hearing, Bundy argued that Idaho’s trespassing rules are flawed and should be taken to the Supreme Court. He claimed that police did not have the authority to arrest him during the trespassing events. Contrary to Prosecutor Welsh, he suggested that he had never been late to court and had always been polite.
Judge McDevitt disagreed.
She remarked that he had blatantly disrespected the community service order, “making a mockery of the sentence you received.”
Bundy received the maximum sentence possible, five days for the originally suspended trespassing sentence and five for contempt.