State v. Bundy

566 P.3d 445
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedApril 1, 2025
Docket50333/50715
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 566 P.3d 445 (State v. Bundy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bundy, 566 P.3d 445 (Idaho 2025).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF IDAHO Docket Nos. 50333 & 50715

STATE OF IDAHO, ) ) Plaintiff-Respondent, ) Boise, January 2025 Term ) v. ) Opinion Filed: April 1, 2025 ) AMMON EDWARD BUNDY, ) Melanie Gagnepain, Clerk ) Defendant-Appellant. )

Appeal from the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, State of Idaho, Ada County. Gerald F. Schroeder, Senior District Judge, and David D. Manweiler, Magistrate Judge, and Kira L. Dale, Magistrate Judge.

The decisions of the district court are affirmed.

Idaho Injury Law Group, PLLC, Boise, for Appellant, Ammon Edward Bundy. Seth H. Diviney argued.

Raúl R. Labrador, Idaho Attorney General, Boise, for Respondent State of Idaho. Kenneth K. Jorgensen argued.

_____________________

MEYER, Justice. Ammon Edward Bundy appeals from his convictions for misdemeanor criminal trespass and misdemeanor resisting and obstructing in two cases that have been consolidated on appeal. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the district court’s decisions upholding Bundy’s convictions in both cases.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Bundy was convicted of one count of misdemeanor criminal trespass and one count of misdemeanor resisting and obstructing in Supreme Court Docket Number 50333. He was also convicted of one count of misdemeanor criminal trespass and one count of misdemeanor delaying an officer 1 in Docket Number 50715. Bundy challenged his convictions in both cases on 0F

1 Idaho Code section 18-705 prohibits resisting, obstructing, and delaying an officer in the discharge of any duty of his office. Although Bundy was charged and convicted of “delaying an officer” under Idaho Code section 18-705, for ease of reference for the remainder of this opinion, we will refer to this crime as resisting and obstructing.

1 intermediate appeal to the district court. The district court affirmed his convictions. Bundy then timely appealed to this Court and both cases were consolidated on appeal.

A. On August 25, 2020, Idaho State Troopers removed Bundy from the Lincoln Auditorium and charged him with trespass and resisting and obstructing in Docket No. 50333. The facts in Docket No. 50333 occurred on August 25, 2020. Bundy was observing a committee meeting in the Lincoln Auditorium at the Idaho State Capitol building, when a disturbance created by other audience members resulted in the meeting being relocated to another room in the Capitol building. After that meeting ended, then-Speaker of the House, Scott Bedke, ordered the Lincoln Auditorium to be cleared and closed for the day. The Idaho State Troopers stationed at the Capitol building entered the auditorium, informed the individuals still inside that it was closed for the day, and warned them that they could be charged with criminal trespass if they did not leave the auditorium. Although others left the auditorium, Bundy remained seated. Troopers approached Bundy, seated at the press table, and asked him to leave. Bundy did not respond and remained seated. When the troopers attempted to remove Bundy, he “went limp.” When troopers stood Bundy up so they could handcuff him, he fell to the floor and did not respond to the troopers’ commands. As Bundy refused to leave under his own power, the troopers wheeled him out of the Capitol building in an office chair. He was placed under arrest and charged with one count of misdemeanor criminal trespass in violation of Idaho Code section 18-7008(2)(a) and (3)(b)(i), and misdemeanor resisting and obstructing an officer under Idaho Code section 18-705. The criminal complaint charged Bundy with misdemeanor criminal trespass, alleging that Bundy: [O]n or about the 25th day of August 2020, in the County of Ada, State of Idaho, did willfully remain on the real property of another without permission, to wit: 700 W[est] Jefferson Street, Boise Idaho, knowing or with reason to know that his presence was not permitted in that he failed to depart immediately from the real property after being notified by the owner’s agent to do so. The complaint also charged Bundy with misdemeanor resisting and obstructing, alleging that he:

[O]n or about the 25th day of August 2020, in the County of Ada, State of Idaho, did willfully resist, delay, and/or obstruct a public officer(s) . . . by refusing to follow Idaho State Police lawful commands during his arrest and removal from the State Capitol property, requiring officers to carry him and place him in and out of the patrol car and/or by refusing to follow Ada County Sheriff Officer lawful

2 commands during the booking and transport to cell process requiring officers to carry him and/or do everything for him required by the booking process. In the months that followed, Bundy filed multiple motions to dismiss, which were denied by the magistrate court. Bundy’s case proceeded to a four-day jury trial. The jury heard testimony from numerous witnesses, including Sergeant Blake Higley and Speaker Scott Bedke; Bundy also testified in his own defense. The jury convicted Bundy of one count of misdemeanor criminal trespass and one count of misdemeanor resisting and obstructing. Following the trial, Bundy filed a motion for judgment of acquittal, where he raised as-applied constitutional challenges to Idaho’s criminal trespass statute, argued that the statute did not apply to public property, asserted that his arrest was unlawful, and maintained that he was passively resisting arrest. The magistrate court denied Bundy’s motion. Bundy was sentenced to pay a fine and court costs totaling $657.50 and sentenced to credit for time served of three days on the criminal trespass count. He was also ordered to pay a fine and court costs totaling $407.50, given credit for 3 days in jail, and directed to complete 40 hours of public service within 180 days in lieu of 2 days in jail on the resisting and obstructing count. Bundy’s sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Bundy appealed his convictions to the district court and raised many of the same arguments he made in his motion for acquittal. On intermediate appeal, the district court determined that Idaho’s criminal trespass statute was not ambiguous and that the statute was not unconstitutionally vague or overbroad as applied to Bundy’s conduct. The district court found that the criminal trespass statute did apply to public property based on the plain language of the statute. The district court noted that the trespass statute contains the terms “private,” “public,” and “real property,” and when the statute is “read as a whole, [it] does not exclude public property.” Bundy argued that Idaho Code section 67-1602(3) and House Rule 63 gave the Speaker of the House unbridled discretion to close the Capitol building, creating a situation where the Speaker can revoke or exclude a visitor’s access to the building at will. The district court rejected the unbridled discretion argument, noting that the statute and House Rule 63 give the Speaker of the House the ability to preserve order and decorum, subject to an appeal to the House, and they grant him the ability to supervise the House floor and committee rooms, including the Lincoln Auditorium, among other parts of the building. The district court held that this is not “unbridled discretion.” Bundy made a similar argument that Idaho Code sections 67-1602 and 67-1603 gave the Director of the Department of Administration “unbridled discretion” to revoke a visitor’s permission to visit the

3 Capitol building. The district court rejected Bundy’s “unbridled discretion” argument with respect to the Director of the Department of Administration, holding that the scope of Director’s authority is limited by statute.

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Bluebook (online)
566 P.3d 445, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bundy-idaho-2025.