EMMETT, Idaho — Ammon Bundy was arrested Friday night by the Gem County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for contempt charges during a legal battle with St. Luke’s Health System. According to a video obtained by KTVB, Bundy was arrested at an Emmett High School football fundraiser.
Records at the Gem County Jail show that he was arrested for a contempt charge out of Ada County. He will have an option of bonding out at a $10,000 bond. If he does not bond out, he will be held in the jail over the weekend, speak with a judge Monday morning and then be transported to the Ada County Jail within 24-48 hours of when they schedule a hearing.
Following his arrest, supporters of Bundy showed up at the Gem County Jail. KTVB’s Alexandra Duggan was on the scene and said some supporters were holding signs and yelling, but that it had remained peaceful.
In July, after a default judgement, a jury ordered Bundy to pay $26 million, part of the total $52.5 million ordered between him and his fellow defendants. About half of that was in compensatory damages and the other half in punitive damages.
The lawsuit is in response to what the health system calls a “smear campaign” consisting of harassment, false statements and trespassing. St. Luke’s claims the defendants incited a protest at a hospital in Boise , resulting in a lockdown that interfered with patient care and diverted ambulances.
That case relates to protests that Bundy and Diego Rodriguez helped orchestrate outside of St. Luke’s Hospital in March of 2022 and defamation on the part of Bundy and his network surrounding the situation. The demonstrations came as a response to the separation of Rodriguez’s grandchild from his family by police. Officers found the child in “imminent danger” after his family had been unresponsive to medical professionals reaching out to check on the infant’s potential malnourishment.
