Global Courant
Fourteen months after St. Luke’s filed a libel lawsuit against Ammon Bundy and another far-right activist — neither of whom ever went to trial — the case has come to an end.
The 12 jurors who decided on damages in the civil suit returned to the courtroom early Monday evening to announce what Bundy, close associate Diego Rodriguez and their various entities would have to pay to the health system and other plaintiffs.
The verdict: a total of $26.5 million in punitive damages and $26 million in punitive damages.
The additional $500,000 in the compensatory category resulted from the jury’s finding that violations of the Idaho Charitable Solicitation Act by Rodriguez and his Freedom Man Press company had harmed the plaintiffs.
Compensatory damages are intended to repay plaintiffs for losses incurred as a result of actions of defendants and punitive damages are intended to punish defendants for their actions.
St. Luke’s attorney Erik Stidham told the jury Friday that he thought $37 million would be the fairest amount for damages and $16 million the minimum amount that should be considered. He has not proposed an amount for punitive damages.
“I hope you look at this and you put[Bundy]off in a way he hasn’t been put off yet,” Stidham said in his closing statements.
Boise police arrest Ammon Bundy on March 12, 2022 for trespassing at St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise.
Bundy and Rodriguez led protests at St. Luke’s Hospitals in Meridian and downtown Boise in March 2022 over a child support case involving Rodriguez’s 10-month-old grandchild. The lawsuit named as defendants both men, Bundy’s People’s Rights Network, Bundy’s campaign for governor, and Rodriguez’s Freedom Man website and political action committee.
The suit said the defendants then posted multiple lies online about the hospital system, its employees and the reasons why the baby was taken into custody. Over the past two weeks, St. Luke’s has been outlining through court testimony and showing the amount of material circulated by the defendants.
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In the end, they were all hit hard financially:
Ammon Bundy: $6.2 million compensatory, $6.15 million penalty
People’s Rights Network: $5.2 million compensation, $5.2 million punitive
Ammon Bundy for governor: $1.55 million in compensation, $1.65 million in punishment
Diego Rodriguez: $7 million in punitive damages, $6.5 million
Freedom Man Press/Freedom Man PAC Combined: $6.55M Compensation, $6.5M Penalty
The jury weighed several questions in determining damages, including whether defendants made defamatory statements about each plaintiff; publicly portray the plaintiffs in a false light; and deliberately inflicting emotional distress on the plaintiffs. Compensation was awarded in all these areas.
The only two questions in which the jury did not award damages related to whether the defendants entered St. Luke’s property at Boise and Meridian hospitals.
A number of health professionals testified at the claims trial that they had treated the baby for severe malnutrition and that he was in urgent need of care.
“In my opinion, if he had been allowed to go home with his parents and continue the trajectory he was on, he would have died,” said Rachel Thomas, an emergency room physician at St. Luke’s.
Stidham said the defendants spread lies through videos and blog posts that the hospital was collaborating with the government to take children from Christian homes to be sexually abused and given to gay couples. He claimed Bundy and Rodriguez companies and groups were a “massive ugly machine built to make money and radicalize people”. He said lying about the welfare case was a way to get people to donate to their causes.
After Bundy, who was running for governor of Idaho at the time, and Rodriguez repeatedly failed to appear in court or fail to respond to a judge’s orders, they were given default, meaning they essentially forfeited the case and left to go to the damages portion of the trial.
In addition to St. Luke’s, plaintiffs in the lawsuit included St. Luke’s CEO Chris Roth and two medical professionals who worked on the child, Dr. Luke. Natasha Erickson and nursing specialist Tracy Jungman. All plaintiffs were awarded millions in damages by the jury.
