This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Even for someone with a reputation as a legal scrapper, this was a big scrape.
Salt Lake City attorney Marcus Mumford added to his reputation this week with not only a huge win in a Portland, Ore., trial that grabbed national headlines but also with a post-verdict courtroom tussle that ended with the deployment of a stun gun and him being led from the courtroom in handcuffs.
The drama came after a federal court jury acquitted seven defendants charged with crimes stemming from the takeover of a federally owned wildlife sanctuary in Oregon earlier this year. Those acquitted included Ammon Bundy, Mumford's client.
After the verdict, Mumford requested that Bundy and his brother Ryan, also a defendant, be released from custody, but Judge Anna J. Brown denied the request, saying they had charges pending against them in Nevada over an April 2014 standoff with government agents at the Bundy family ranch.
Mumford said Friday that he then demanded to see papers showing that U.S. marshals had the authority to keep the Bundys in custody.
"Mr. Mumford, you really need to not yell at me, now or ever again," Brown told him, according to a New York Times account.
U.S. Marshals then surrounded Mumford.
"The next thing I'm down on the ground and they're like, 'Let's get the Taser out on him,' " Mumford said after he flew back to Salt Lake City. The officers yelled at him to "stop resisting," Mumford said, "and I'm like, 'Guys, I'm not resisting.' "
An officer pressed a stun gun into his back and fired, Mumford said, even after the judge told officers to "stand down."
"I felt it over a period of time but I'm not sure how many shots that was," he said.
The defense attorney was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs but later released from custody and appeared before television cameras outside the courthouse.
Thadd Baird, the U.S. Marshals supervisory deputy in Portland, said in a statement that officers intervened after Mumford became "upset and aggressive." After taking him into custody, the Federal Protective Service cited Mumford for failing to comply with lawful directions and for causing a disturbance. A court appearance is scheduled for January, Baird said.
Brown had rebuked Mumford several times during the trial, ordering him to follow her rulings and reword some of his questions, according to news reports. She even threatened him with a $1,000 fine if he persisted.