With Nevada mistrials as backdrop, DeLemus rally set for Saturday

Jerry DeLemus (Courtesy photo)

COPYRIGHT 2017 ©CONCORD, N.H. - A rally in support of a Rochester man imprisoned in Nevada on federal charges in the Arizona Bundy standoff of 2014 will be held Saturday in Concord.

Former state GOP chairman Jack Kimball is organizing the rally for Jerry DeLemus, which will be held in front of the State House at 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, two men were found guilty in a Nevada federal courtroom in connection with the standoff, while mistrials were declared on four other suspects who will likely be tried once again.

DeLemus' wife, Susan DeLemus, exulted in the mistrials on her Facebook Page, posting on Monday, "Excellent work by the jurors in the Bunkersville, Nevada, case!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Great job!"

DeLemus, a local Tea Party organizer, was among 19 indicted in 2016 on charges of being a midlevel organizer of the standoff with federal agents from the Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights on federal lands.

He pleaded guilty to two of 16 charges against him in a plea deal, but withdrew his plea last summer after all seven defendants in a federal wildlife sanctuary takeover in Oregon two years ago were found innocent.

DeLemus visited the site of the Oregon takeover in an attempt to broker a peaceful resolution, however, not long after he returned to Rochester, Lavoy Finicum, a spokesman for the group who seized the wildlife sanctuary, was killed on a remote Oregon highway as he and others tried to leave the occupation site.

Soon after DeLemus was indicted on March 3, 2016, as a midlevel leader and organizer of the Bundy standoff, who, among other things: recruited, organized, trained and provided logistical support to gunmen and other followers and organized and led armed patrols and security checkpoints from April 12 till the end of May 2014 on and about the disputed grazing lands and Bundy ranch in southeastern Nevada.
The original indictment charged him with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, threatening a federal law enforcement officer, assault on a federal officer, obstruction of justice, attempting to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer, interference with interstate commerce by extortion, and several firearms charges, for which he could have been sentenced to life in federal prison.
He was arrested on March 3, 2016, as several FBI vehicles full of armed agents in full tactical gear with weapons drawn swarmed his Rochester condo.
The Bundy standoff was an armed confrontation between protesters and law enforcement that developed from a 20-year legal dispute between the Bureau of Land Management and Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy.

The court so far has refused a ruling on DeLemus' plea withdrawal.

Saturday's rally at the Statehouse will also be in support of President Trump.