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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Oregon Refuge Occupier Pleads Guilty to Theft

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — The first person to plead guilty to charges stemming from the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon will spend six months in jail after a federal judge accepted his plea agreement.

Colorado resident Scott Alan Willingham, 49, pleaded guilty to stealing government cameras from a substation outside the refuge. The government said the cameras were worth $6,500.

Willingham reportedly stole the surveillance cameras alongside LaVoy Finicum, who was gunned down by Oregon State Police in the traffic stop that netted the arrest of Ammon Bundy and the rest of the occupation leadership.

Federal prosecutors charged Willingham in a separate indictment from the other 26 Malheur defendants, who face charges ranging from conspiracy to impede a federal officer to carrying a gun while committing a violent crime.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown accepted Willingham's plea agreement on Thursday and set his sentencing hearing for Sept. 23.

Willingham faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

His attorney, Richard Fredericks of Eugene, Oregon, did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

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