Seventh Guilty Plea in Oregon Standoff -- #BundyTeaParty

[struggle4progress]

By Colin Miner (Patch Staff) - July 7, 2016 8:55 pm ET

... Blaine Cooper pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in Federal Court in Portland.

He is expected to also plead guilty to charges in Nevada in the coming weeks.

Along with several of his co-defendants in Oregon, Cooper is charged in Nevada in connection with the 2014 armed standoff with Bureau of Land Management officers in Bunkerville.

Cooper helped recruit people to travel to the refuge ...

http://patch.com/oregon/portland/oregon-standoff-latest-seventh-guilty-plea-case

[struggle4progress]

1. Blaine Cooper pleads guilty

By Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on July 07, 2016 at 5:14 PM, updated July 07, 2016 at 11:07 PM

Blaine Cooper, a recruiter who encouraged people to bring their guns to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the occupation, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal conspiracy charge and is poised to accept a plea deal in his federal indictment in Nevada.

Cooper, 37, of Humboldt, Arizona, is the first defendant in the Oregon standoff case to seek a global resolution in the federal prosecutions pending against him in both states.

Cooper is likely to plead guilty to at least one of the 11 offenses he's charged with stemming from the 2014 armed standoff with federal officers over grazing cattle on U.S. land near Cliven Bundy's ranch in southern Nevada. He's also expected to face a stiffer prison sentence in that case.

A tentative agreement, not yet formally accepted, would have Cooper pleading guilty to two charges in Nevada and facing a six-year sentence ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/07/blaine_cooper_pleads_guilty_to.html

[malaise]

7. K & R

[handmade34]

2. ...

thanks for keeping us up to speed about this

[longship]

3. Hopefully all those dudes go to prison.

Where hopefully they will learn something about how things work in this world.

Sovereign citizens? BAH!!!!

R&K

And I agree. Your coverage on this has been great. Kudos!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Would be best if they lose their guns due to felony convictions.

Then their prophecy will come true: "The gubmint come took mah gunz!"

[madinmaryland]

5. Heh! But at least they will have a small plot of federal land

to live on free!!!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Might even have a small plot to rest inside of if they get uppity about surrendering guns. . . . nt

[struggle4progress]

8. 'Recruiter' Blaine Cooper Pleads Guilty

By MEERAH POWELL • 50 MINUTES AGO

... According to federal prosecutor Craig Gabriel, the 37-year-old acted as a recruiter at the refuge in January, and urged supporters over video to bring their firearms to the federal site.

There is no evidence that Cooper possessed any firearms himself at the refuge ...

Gabriel recommended a split sentence, depending on what Cooper’s total sentence ends up being. For example, six months in custody with time served and six months in some form of alternative incarceration, such as a halfway house.

Cooper’s lawyer, Krista Shipsey, said Cooper told her that he “felt like a nobody” before Malheur, and felt that the so-called patriot movement gave him a purpose ...

http://ijpr.org/post/malheur-refuge-occupier-and-recruiter-blaine-cooper-pleads-guilty#stream/0

[gratuitous]

9. Cooper "felt like a nobody"

I will give him points for honesty and a soupçon of self-awareness, and hope it spreads like a contagion throughout his ideological brethren in the so-called patriot movement. You want to feel like a somebody? Go volunteer at Meals on Wheels. Be a reader for kids at the library, or to seniors in an assisted living home. Sort donations at Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Don't pick up a weapon and threaten to shoot people you don't like; that doesn't make you somebody, it makes you a fool.

[pinboy3niner]

10. He was one of the main actors at both standoffs

Now he wants to go to court as a "nobody"? Gimme a break!