SALEM, Ore. — A far-right activist who led the takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon now should pay tens of millions of {dollars} in damages after a hospital in Idaho gained a defamation lawsuit in opposition to them.

The lawsuit by St. Luke’s Regional Health accused Ammon Bundy and his affiliate Diego Rodriguez of creating defamatory statements in opposition to the hospital and its staff after Rodriguez’s toddler grandson was quickly faraway from his household and brought to St. Luke’s amid considerations for his well being.

Police mentioned on the time that medical personnel decided the kid was malnourished and had misplaced weight. The hospital claimed Bundy and Rodriguez orchestrated a smear marketing campaign in opposition to it.

Late Monday, a jury on the Ada County Courthouse in Boise agreed, awarding the hospital damages exceeding $50 million, the hospital introduced.

“The jury’s decision imposes accountability for the ongoing campaign of intimidation, harassment and disinformation these defendants have conducted,” St. Luke’s mentioned in a press release. “It also affirms the importance of protecting health care providers and other public servants from attacks intended to prevent them from carrying out their responsibilities.”

Bundy had urged his followers to protest on the hospital and on the houses of kid safety service staff, legislation enforcement officers and others concerned within the youngster safety case. Rodriguez wrote on his web site that the child was “kidnapped,” and recommended that the state and other people concerned within the case have been engaged in “child trafficking” for revenue.

The lawsuit was filed greater than a 12 months in the past. Since then, Bundy has ignored court docket orders associated to the lawsuit, filed trespassing complaints in opposition to folks employed to ship authorized paperwork, and referred to as on scores of his followers to camp at his residence for defense when he discovered he is perhaps arrested on a warrant for a misdemeanor cost of contempt of court docket.

Bundy didn't instantly reply to a request for touch upon the jury’s choice. Bundy wasn’t represented by an lawyer, nor was Rodriguez, in response to court docket papers.

In 2016, Bundy led a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge close to Burns, Oregon, to protest the arson convictions of two ranchers who set fires on federal land the place that they had been grazing their cattle.

In 2014, Bundy’s father, rancher Cliven Bundy, rallied supporters to cease officers from impounding Bundy Ranch cattle over greater than $1 million in unpaid charges and penalties for grazing livestock on authorities land.

Ammon Bundy was acquitted of felony fees in Oregon, and the Nevada felony case led to a mistrial.

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