Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR

Document 1024

Filed 08/11/16

Page 1 of 4

Tiffany A. Harris OSB 02318

Attorney at Law
333 SW Taylor St., Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97204
t. 503.782.4799
tiff@harrisdefense.com
Standby counsel for Shawna Cox
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON
PORTLAND DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
v.

3:16-CR-00051-BR-07
DEFENDANTS EXPERT
WITNESS DISCLOSURE
UNDER RULE 16(b)(1)(C)

SHAWNA COX.
Defendant.

Pursuant to Rule 16(b)(1)(C) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Defendant

Shawna Cox, with the assistance of standby counsel, Tiffany A. Harris, hereby notifies the Court
and counsel of her intent to call Dr. R. McGreggor Cawley, during the defense case in chief, as
an expert in the area of environmental history and western lands.
QUALIFICATIONS, TRAINING AND EXPERTISE
Dr. Cawley has a doctorate in political science and is a published author and tenured
professor of political science at the University of Wyoming. His CV is attached as Exhibit 1.
Dr. Cawley is one of the leading scholars and teachers on the subject of the politics and
management of public lands in the American West. Dr. Cawley turned his doctoral thesis into a
book entitled, Federal Land Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental
USDC Oregon Case 3:16-CR-00051-BR
Defendants Expert Witness Disclosure under Rule 16(b)(1)(C)

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR

Document 1024

Filed 08/11/16

Page 2 of 4

Politics (1993 ed. Univ. Kansas Press). His other works include: A Wolf in the Garden: The
Land Rights Movement and the New Environmental Debate (co-editor); Producing Political
Climate Change: The Hidden Life of U.S. Environmentalism (journal article appearing in
Environmental Politics); Environmentalism, Governmentality, and Legitimism (journal article,
appearing in Administrative Theory & Praxis); Science, Expertise and the Public: The Politics
of Ecosystem Management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (journal article, appearing in
Landscape and Urban Planning); Inserting Frontier into Dichotomies: Politics, Administration,
and Agonistic Pluralism, (journal article, appearing in Administrative Theory & Praxis); James
Watt and the Environmentalists: A Clash of Ideologies (journal article, appearing in Policy
Studies Journal); Changes in Federal State Relations: The Sagebrush Rebellion (journal
article, appearing in Southwestern Review of Management and Economics); Biodiversity:
Lessons from the U.S. Wilderness Act (journal article, appearing in Society and Natural
Resources)
Dr. Cawley continues to teach a full load of courses at the University of Wyoming in
federal lands, environmental politics and political science. He is scheduled to take a sabbatical
next year to complete a new book on the ascendancy of the Tea Party movement in American
politics.
ANTICIPATED TESTIMONY
Perhaps it is unorthodox, but this disclosure begins by stating what Dr. Cawley will not
be testifying on. Defendants do not anticipate calling on Dr. Cawley to testify regarding the
doctrine of Adverse Possession, the legitimacy of federal ownership or management of the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, or anticipate asking him to endorse or validate the specific
grievances aired by the defendants 41-day protest at the refuge or the events in Bunkerville,
Nevada in 2014.
1.

Background regarding the governmental agencies and structures created to

manage public lands in the West

USDC Oregon Case 3:16-CR-00051-BR

Defendants Expert Witness Disclosure under Rule 16(b)(1)(C)

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR

Document 1024

Filed 08/11/16

Page 3 of 4

Defendants anticipate that the jury in this case will be drawn largely from the Tri-county
area and will be unfamiliar with the federal policies, agencies and systems created to manage
public lands in the western states. Many of the defendants and defense witnesses are land users
(ranchers, farmers, workers servicing ranchers and farmers). The government has already
signaled its intent to offer evidence of the events involving the prosecution of the Hammonds,
and evidence of Defendants statements in protest and other actions in gathering at the refuge to
protest federal policies governing access to and management of land resources in the West.
Defendants anticipate that the government will be asking the jury to draw inferences regarding
their motivations and intent in making those statements and actions..
Rather than rely exclusively on lay witnesses to educate the jury regarding these complex
matters, the defense anticipates offering Dr. Cawley as an expert witness to explain the complex
history of these matters. His testimony will help ensure that the jury is sufficiently educated,
through historical information, to understand the testimony from defense witnesses in the
appropriate historical and governmental context.
Dr. Cawley has taught this information to 18 and 19 year old students for decades. He,
and not the defendants (testifying on their own behalf), is in the best position to offer a
comprehensive framework and context for information that is central to the jurys understanding
of important evidence in the case.
2.

Protest politics and civil disobedience

Many of the defendants and their witnesses have participated in acts of civil disobedience
in order to call attention to perceived injustices in the restrictions and regulations imposed on
land use in the West (e.g., entering closed forest areas to stage all terrain vehicle rides). The
government is seeking to introduce evidence of these activities and asking the jury to draw
inferences concerning the force, threats and intimidation represented by these actions. Dr.
Cawleys works discuss the central role of civil disobedience in the sagebrush rebellion, the
American political movement organized to increase local control of and land users access to
USDC Oregon Case 3:16-CR-00051-BR
Defendants Expert Witness Disclosure under Rule 16(b)(1)(C)

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR

Document 1024

Filed 08/11/16

Page 4 of 4

public lands in the American West. His works document acts of state and local officials,
community activists and others who engage in high profile, confrontational stand-offs (such as a
county commissioners ride on a bulldozer down a closed forest road).
To the extent that the defendants attention-grabbing and confrontational tactics are
alleged to be criminal in nature and undertaken to impede or threaten others, Dr. Cawley can
offer a historical context that explains how protest movements (particularly land use protests in
the West) have relied upon these tactics and garnered needed public attention and support by
adopting them.
3. Leadership Structure
Dr. Cawley has studied the ebb and flow of the sagebrush rebels influence over time,
their marked lack of a leadership structure, and their appeal to interest groups who share a
general sentiment of being unrepresented or under-represented in the political process and policy
arenas. To the extent that the Governments case in chief includes evidence that defendants
conspired with one another, recruited and carefully selected co-conspirators and associates at the
refuge, Dr. Cawleys expert testimony about the nature of land use protests in the West provides
a different view, grounded in the nature of protest moveents and Dr. Cawleys research. In that
regard it offers the trier of fact information that is not in the ordinary capacity of a lay juror and
is helpful to deciding facts at issue in the case.

DATED this 11th day of August, 2016.

Respectfully submitted,
/S/
Tiffany Harris
Tiffany A. Harris
Standby Counsel for Defendant Shawna Cox

USDC Oregon Case 3:16-CR-00051-BR

Defendants Expert Witness Disclosure under Rule 16(b)(1)(C)