A militia bodyguard involved in the armed takeover of a federal building in Oregon over a land dispute between the government and ranchers has been released from jail after spending more than 20 months in custody.
Brian Cavalier, nicknamed 'Booda' because he has a Buddha tattoo on his stomach, yesterday became the last of 19 defendants from 11 different states to be sentenced over the standoff with armed federal agents nearly five years ago.
The 47-year-old joined several armed militia to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, which lead to a tense 41-day armed standoff at the refuge in 2014.
Armed ranchers and more than two dozen self-declared militia members forced heavily armed U.S land management agents to retreat and release a herd of cattle in a dusty dry river bed.
Working as a bodyguard for Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, Cavalier, along with the other militia members and supporters maintained the federal government has no authority to collect fees or stop ranchers from letting cattle graze in vast arid rangelands.
They characterized their refusal to let the government confiscate cows grazing in what is now Gold Butte National Monument as an expression of free speech and weapon rights.
Prosecutors cast the confrontation as an insurrection against the U.S. government.
The incident stoked passions among some who contrasted the peaceful outcome in Nevada with a 1993 federal siege and fire that destroyed a religious sect compound in Waco, Texas, killing more than 70 people.
Cavalier, of Mesa, Arizona, was told yesterday he won't serve any more time than the 20 months he spent in federal custody between his arrest in early 2016 and his guilty plea in October 2017 to two charges of conspiracy to impede and injure a federal officer.
'I'd just like to put this behind me', he told Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro at the end of the brief court hearing.
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In 2016 the MailOnline revealed Cavalier had never served as a marine, despite his claime he was a veteran of tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Cliven Bundy, wife Carol Bundy, son Ryan Bundy, and close family friend Shawna Cox were among the few observers in the courtroom yesterday while the judge credited Cavalier with taking responsibility and pleading guilty months before Navarro found 'flagrant' prosecutorial misconduct and dismissed the case against other defendants a year ago.
Most of the 19 defendants spent nearly two years in federal custody awaiting trial on charges that could have gotten them decades in prison, including conspiracy, threatening and assaulting federal officers, firearm offenses, obstruction and extortion.
Prosecutors failed to gain full convictions in 2017 in two jury trials against six defendants who carried assault-style weapons during the confrontation outside Bunkerville, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
Two men from Idaho were memorably photographed on a highway overpass pointing rifles at heavily armed federal agents facing hundreds of flag-waving women, children and men on horseback.
In the end, five defendants pleaded guilty before trial, several were acquitted of all counts and some were convicted of lesser charges. Two are in prison, appealing their sentences. Most were let go for time already served.
Navarro also sentenced Cavalier to one year of federal supervision, ordered him to undergo substance abuse treatment and prohibited him from communicating with other people connected with the standoff.
Cavalier also pleaded guilty to a weapons charge in Oregon and was sentenced in 2016 to time already served in federal custody in Portland for his role in a 41-day armed occupation of a wildlife refuge with more than two dozen people including Bundy sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy in January 2016.
Cavalier and his attorney, Mace Yampolsky, declined outside court to comment.