Ammon Bundy sued for defamation by Idaho hospital

BOISE — An Idaho hospital that went on lockdown in March after far-right activists protested outdoors is suing Ammon Bundy, Diego Rodriguez and their numerous political organizations for defamation and “sustained on-line assaults.”

St. Luke’s Well being System filed the lawsuit Wednesday towards Bundy, his gubernatorial marketing campaign, and his Individuals’s Rights Community group. The hospital system can also be suing Diego Rodriguez — the grandfather of the kid concerned within the safety case — in addition to Rodriguez’s web site Freedom Man Press and the Freedom Man political motion committee. Rodriguez is an affiliate of Bundy’s who has been lively in Bundy’s political marketing campaign.

The kid safety case concerned a 10-month-old child who was briefly faraway from household custody in March after officers decided the toddler was “affected by extreme malnourishment” and susceptible to damage or demise, the Meridian Police Division stated on the time. The newborn’s mother and father had refused to let officers examine on the kid’s welfare after the household canceled a medical appointment, the police assertion stated.

Bundy, who’s well-known for collaborating in armed standoffs with regulation enforcement, was arrested the next day on a misdemeanor trespassing cost after he protested at a distinct hospital the place he believed the child was being handled. He additionally requested his followers to protest on the hospital and the properties of kid safety service staff, regulation enforcement officers and others concerned within the little one safety case. Rodriguez, in the meantime, wrote on his web site that the child was “kidnapped,” and prompt that the state and folks concerned within the case have been engaged in “little one trafficking” for revenue.

The lads additionally advised followers to protest on the Boise hospital on March 15. The power went on lockdown for greater than an hour, diverting emergency sufferers to different space hospitals, after hospital officers decided the protests offered a security danger.

Within the lawsuit, St. Luke’s Well being System contends that the 2 males “labored collectively to fabricate a false narrative of a state-sponsored little one kidnapping and trafficking ring” that included the hospital, the Division of Well being and Welfare, regulation enforcement officers and others.

“They realized the info surrounding DHW’s intervention might be mischaracterized as a governmental conspiracy to kidnap, visitors and kill youngsters,” the hospital system’s legal professional wrote within the lawsuit. “Then, in flip, Defendants realized they may set up themselves as crusaders towards their falsely manufactured governmental conspiracy.”

The defendants needed to generate curiosity in Bundy’s political marketing campaign for governor, increase their public profiles and create monetary achieve within the type of donations from followers, the hospital system contends.

Neither Bundy nor Rodriguez instantly responded to emails requesting remark.

St. Luke’s is asking for greater than $50,000 in damages plus authorized charges in an quantity to be confirmed in trial. The hospital system additionally needs the defendants to be barred from making defamatory statements.

In a press release, St. Luke’s stated it will donate any award of financial damages to a program for at-risk youngsters known as Kids At Danger Analysis Service.