The Hammonds were convicted of arson in 2012 after a two-week jury trial. Both were found guilty of starting a 139-acre fire in 2001. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Steven Hammond said he started the fire on private land to burn invasive plants and it spread to public lands. Prosecutors said the fire was set to cover up deer poaching on BLM land. Dwight Hammond also was convicted of setting a backfire in 2006 that burned 1 acre of public land.
The Hammonds originally received much shorter sentences from a U.S. District Court judge, who said the mandatory minimum sentence of five years was far too long. The lenient sentences, however, were overturned by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, leading to the Hammonds’ resentencing.
Harney County Farm Bureau President Rusty Inglis said he doubts outside militia groups will generate much local enthusiasm.
“We don’t support them, simple as that,” he said. “I hope they have their little rally and it stays peaceful and nobody gets hurt,” he said.
The Oregon Farm Bureau has denounced the Hammonds’ punishment, but its president, Barry Bushue, said Wednesday that armed militia members won’t help their cause.
Bushue, a longtime family friend, said he expects the Hammonds will want to return to ranching.
“They want to do it peacefully. They want to move forward, instead of clinging to the past,” he said. “From my perspective, that’s where the community can be most beneficial, instead of making it into a public spectacle.
“I fear it reflects badly on the ranching community and the local community, or at least has the potential to,” Bushe said. “We are incensed by the fact that (the Hammonds) have to go back to prison, but in the end, the rule of law has to be followed.”
Convicted Burns ranchers, local supporters distance themselves from militia groups
These outsider militia groups are not welcome in that area. While the Hammond's sentence is silly, they did something stupid, but not criminal, nothing at all to do with terrorism, the militia groups are just there to start trouble. And the good people of Eastern Oregon are not buying into the bloody fantasies of these idiot militias.
