Ammon Bundy arrested for missing trial after refusing to wear mask in court
Anti-government firebrand Ammon Bundy was arrested in Idaho on Monday after he was declared a no-show for his trial after he refused to wear a mask to enter the court building.
Bundy, 41, was set to appear for his trial on misdemeanor trespassing and resisting arrest charges following his arrest at the Idaho Statehouse in August during an anti-COVID restrictions protest. Photos of the arrest, showing Bundy handcuffed to a rolling chair being pushed out of the building, went viral. Earlier that month, school officials forced his son’s high school football team to forfeit a game when Bundy refused to wear a mask in the stands.
The arrest came a week after parents and children burned masks outside the Statehouse in Boise.
Despite no state-wide mask order being in place, the Idaho Supreme Court has required masks in all courthouses in the state for more than a year.
“Mr. Bundy today refused to wear a mask to come into the courthouse and thus was not granted admission,” Steven Hippler, administrative judge for the Fourth Judicial District, told NBC News.
Hippler added that Bundy will be required to follow courthouse rules as a condition of his $10,000 bail.
Bundy and his father Cliven Bundy were among a group of men who illegally occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016.
