CEDAR CITY – A 13-year-old girl was left to her own care Tuesday afternoon when 42-year-old Ryan Bundy, son of Nevada “Range War” crusader Cliven Bundy, appeared in Iron County Justice Court for a nuisance citation Tuesday and was arrested on an unrelated warrant.
On her own
Though he owns property in Cedar City, Ryan Bundy said, his family has been living in Bunkerville, Nevada, for some time. This meant he had to travel to Cedar City from Nevada to be present for Tuesday’s hearing.
As a way of spending extra quality time together, Ryan Bundy said, he brought his 13-year-old daughter along on the trip, expecting the proceeding would be an in-and-out event. Unfortunately for Bundy and his daughter, that was not the case. Instead, he was taken into custody for refusing to enter a plea in an unrelated case of animal interference – leaving the young teen to fend for herself until he was released from the Iron County Jail on Wednesday.
Though the family now lives primarily in Bunkerville, Bundy’s daughter still attends online school through the Iron County School District, which requires her to attend occasional classes in person. Bundy said his daughter was at school when the courthouse events occurred and prevented him from picking her up.
“We don’t have a house up there (in Cedar City) anymore that is in livable condition,” Bundy said. “So, now they throw me in jail, they want to arrest me and throw me in jail, and leave my daughter high and dry without a ride, without a place to stay, and, you know, in the cold.”
The Bundy’s Cedar City house was emptied of furnishings before the family moved back to Bunkerville, he said, so it was not a habitable environment for his daughter to go to after he was taken to jail, having no beds to sleep in and no food in the cupboards or refrigerator.
Bundy said he chose not to tell the officers that his daughter was in town with him because he was afraid if he did, they would put her into the state system while he was in jail. He said he wasn’t about to let that happen.
“My daughter luckily found a benevolent neighbor and she stayed with that neighbor through the night,” Bundy said. “(If I told authorities about my daughter), then what are they going to do? They’re going to call child protective services and then what kind of can of worms would that have opened?”
Bundy said he had all the confidence in the world that his daughter would be taken care of because there are a lot of friends in the community who care about his family, and word travels fast as lighting in such a small town.
“I wouldn’t have told (authorities) where she was, or how old she was, or who she was, or her name or anything,” Ryan Bundy said. “I wouldn’t have let that information out; I would’ve rather her fend for herself than to let her into the hands of more government.”
Court commotion
According to court documents, the citation Ryan Bundy was in court for Tuesday was issued Oct. 8, 2013, for responsibility for a nuisance, a class B misdemeanor. Though the citation was issued in 2013, charges remained unfiled until Oct. 31, 2014. Tuesday was Bundy’s first appearance for the charge, and he pleaded “not guilty.”
The citation Ryan Bundy was arrested for, however, was issued on March 24, 2014, according to court documents. He was scheduled to make his first appearance for that citation on June 17, 2014. The charge was for interference with an officer (animal), a class B misdemeanor. When Bundy failed to appear on June 17, judge Brent Dunlap issued a warrant for his arrest.
The warrant was still active when Bundy appeared in court Tuesday, but he said he had no recollection of ever having received the citation in the first place. He said he also wasn’t clear on where the nuisance charge had come from that he was in court for that day.
Judge Margaret Miller gave Bundy the opportunity to enter a plea regarding the animal charge Tuesday, but Bundy said he refused to enter a plea on a charge he was previously unaware of. He said he was completely blindsided by the whole thing so he asked for more information, but officers arrested him, instead.
Ryan Bundy did not go easily, Iron County Sheriff’s Sgt. Charles Triplett said.
“He basically had his arms, and was holding them together, and he wouldn’t let them handcuff him,” Triplett said. “… He really wasn’t fighting; he just wasn’t compliant at all.”
Bundy’s noncompliance led police to cite him with an additional class B misdemeanor charge for interfering with an arresting officer, court documents reported.
Tuesday’s incident is indicative of a broken governmental system, Ryan Bundy said. He said the government’s agenda takes precedence over the real lives of the citizens they are elected to serve.
“I believe a person has rights,” he said. “(They) can’t just suspend those rights and load you up in jail while you think about something.”
A horse tale
On March 22, a horse was found roaming the streets near Bulldog Road in Cedar City, Cedar City Police Sgt. Jerry Womack said. The animal was brought to the Cedar City Animal Shelter until the owner could be found. The horse was fed and corralled, he said, but when workers showed up the next day, the horse was missing.
While on patrol, a Cedar City Police officer saw the missing horse in a corral on private Cedar City property, he said. After investigating the address to find the property owner, CCPD determined the residence belonged to Ryan Bundy.
According to the report filed the day the citation was issued, Womack said, Ryan Bundy signed the citation but refused to accept it – leaving the officer no choice but to leave the citation by sliding it through Bundy’s window.
“That’s not necessarily my horse,” Ryan Bundy said of the incident. “That’s the problem. They want to throw a ticket like that at me. They don’t have any identification on who this horse belonged to.”
Even if it was his horse, he said, he didn’t understand what was wrong with an owner retrieving his lost property.
Ultimately, he denied any knowledge of receiving a citation in connection with the incident.
“I did not receive any citation,” he said.
Related posts
- News short: Cliven Bundy’s son arrested in Cedar City
- Rancher Cliven Bundy reveals new book, art commemorating BLM standoff
- Cliven Bundy’s son arrested on warrant
- Right or wrong, controversy surrounding Cliven Bundy continues
- Bundy calls on sheriffs to disarm federal agencies; STGnews Videocast
- Perspectives: The Bundys vs the bureaucracy
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Seriously Mr Bundy?? You need to learn to take care of business and stop trying to make yourself look like the victim instead of the one committing the crimes that got you into trouble in the first place. The only one to feel bad for here is your daughter…..how ashamed she must be of her dad…..how embarrassing for the poor girl!
I doubt she is ashamed of her dad. How sad that at such a young age she has to learn for her own protection that our legal(not justice) system is so totally corrupt. She is lucky law enforcement didn’t find an excuse to shoot her dad or kill him with a tazer. They often do that and then claim officer safety and get away with it. I have watched Margaret Miller’s court What a Corrupt, BAD woman! I am totally ashamed of what goes on in this country regarding laws, law enforcement and rotten, corrupt courts. The jail personal are a whole other group of bad actors.
No evil twin I have not spent time in jail so you can drop all that slander. As for you who were making insulting remarks about Mr. Bundy’s face- it was a tragic childhood accident that caused that. Shame on all of you!
You are so right. His birth was a tragic accident.
So you deserve to be born, live and have a good life but he does not? What a terrible thing to think and then to actually write for all to read! No wonder there is so much intolerance and misunderstanding
in our society.
First of all, I never said he didn’t deserve to live and have a good life. This is a man who PUBLICALLY ADMITTED to purposefully leaving his CHILD to fend for herself on the street in a city where he admits that she does not have a home in liveable condition . I don’t support his decision and never will. If not supporting his admitted actions in this situation makes me intolerant in your eyes then so be it. 🙂
I’m agreeing with Linda and Simone.
You are amazingly deluded. What you should be ashamed of is the fact that the Bundy clan is mooching off the U.S. taxpayers and have become heroes to an element of crazies that apparently includes you.
And he’s not even a democrat! Maybe they feel they are entitled to be kept by a nanny government.
Your so creative and your mother doubted you could get a. GED na na na na na
(sigh), *you’re, and what is that about a GED
*? Stupid keyboard does not recognize all keystrokes.
You make my point Chris. Anybody who does not agree with your views is crazy. That attitude sure contributes to the peace and good will that we need in our society – NOT. By the way I figured there would be comments like yours and Simone’s. I will just consider the source of these type of comments and not be bothered with them. You show yourselves for who you are. So sad.
What is sad is that you actually think that you’ve made a logical point here. Maybe that contorted thinking passes for rationality in New Mexico, but it certainly does not fly here. What really hurts “the peace and good will that we need in our society” are nut jobs like the Bundy’s who ignore the rule of law and brandish their firearms against those who oppose them. So sad that you cannot think past their bull.
“(If I told authorities about my daughter), then what are they going to do? They’re going to call child protective services and then what kind of can of worms would that have opened?”
Bundy said he had all the confidence in the world that his daughter would be taken care of because there are a lot of friends in the community who care about his family, and word travels fast as lighting in such a small town.
“I wouldn’t have told (authorities) where she was, or how old she was, or who she was, or her name or anything,” Ryan Bundy said. “I wouldn’t have let that information out; I would’ve rather her fend for herself than to let her into the hands of more government.” What an evil, evil man. I hope his daughter is okay….and in custody of the state
Even if they had contacted CPS, Utah state law requires that a child be placed with family as the first option. And I know that there are plenty of Bundys that live in Cedar City that she could have been placed with.
Always a soap opera with the Bundy clan.
And always a joke with Mesaman na na na na na
What…”I would’ve rather her fend for herself than to let her into the hands of more government.” He would leave a thirteen alone in winter without telling anyone. Maybe he should put his daughters welfare over his disdain for the government.
I can see both sides here. There are laws that need to be followed, but when heavy handed authorities use those laws to intimidate and force compliance, people get upset. This isn’t a one time infraction, but the results of many years of abuse both by the Bundys and by the government officials. However, the word Bully keeps floating to the top.
So Mr. Bundy, you put you need to break the law and be defiant above the care and welfare of your own child? These Bundy’s are the slime of the earth. Anyone who thinks these men are “fighting the good fight” are delusional. They are “kicking against the pricks” and I hope and pray they all end up in prison.
I’ll say one thing for the Bundy clan – they provide a lot of great material for writers who always have to add the caveat: “You can’t make this stuff up.” Actually, you can, but nobody would believe it. But it wasn’t so bad this time. Leaving a 13-year-old girl to fend for herself? Shoot, stranger, in these parts, a girl that age can be married off and fend for babies.
I guess the Bundys and their stories will go on for a long time because they’re so entertaining to the rest of the folks around here. Nobody gets nearly as much column space and coverage as the Bundys. The rest of the country might think they’re a bunch of dumb, defiant, intransigient law-breaking criminals, but not the folks who just shake their heads and chuckle and say, “Oh, those Bundys are at it again.”
Those head-shaking chuckles speak volumes. Volumes.
Utah state law REQUIRES that a child removed from the home in this situation be placed with a relative if possible. Given the number of Bundy family members who DO live in Cedar City he could have found a relative for her to stay with if he had wanted to. But he would rather use his young teenage daughter as a pawn in his family’s “crusade” against the government than make arraignments to have her cared for.
How did this guy think the “arrest attempt” was going to end? These jokers just keep digging the hole deeper. Somehow I doubt continuing to graze illegally is going to end well for them.
BUNDY GOT ARRESTED na na na na na BUNDY GOT ARRESTED na na na na na
You are so creative! And your mother doubted you could pass your GED.
Mesa is a moron na na na na na Mesa is a moron na na na na na
And furthermore, this once again prove what a bunch of uneducated fools the Bundy’s are. They are just plain D.U.M.B.
You are a coward hiding behind a fake name. I want to meet you.
That’s so weird! cause I totally want to meet you too! Does 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Bunkerville Ward Building work for you? Two is when the little hand in on the two and the big hand is on the 12. Are you going to bring me flowers?
LOL way to go VOR great come back I hope it’s your favorite type of flower anyway. LOL
Who are you? Tarrell Bundy?
They should charge him with child neglect now. What a dumb a$$.
And now the worlds worst dad should be charged with child neglect! How dare he say the police left her without a ride, a place to stay, and in the cold? This just boils my blood! Just more proof of these Bundy’s pointing fingers at everyone else but themselves! Lock this piece of crap up for a long time…. His daughter would be better off in the hands of the state any day!!!
Any father who would choose his hatred of the government over his daughter’s safety and well being is a scum bag.
Hey you left out low life
Don’t tell “Native Born New Mexican” that. She wants to have his baby!
LOL that’s funny right I don’t care who you are. Get er done. LOL
Hey uncommon stupidity blame it on the keyboard. YOUR just an idiot