It's not every day you see grown men throwing a tantrum by swarming a Boise, Idaho hospital, harassing medical professionals, and disrupting operations, causing a shutdown and forcing ambulances to be diverted. But petulant man-toddlers Ammon Bundy and his sidekick Diego Rodriguez did just that, and now they are paying the price for their thoughtlessness and arrogance in the form of court-imposed damages totaling $52.5 million, reports The Idaho Capital Sun.
The selfish escapade began when doctors diagnosed Rodriguez's infant grandson with severe malnutrition and placed him in protective custody. Bundy and Rodriguez threw a hissy fit and stormed the hospital to reclaim the child. True to form, Bundy's organizations also launched a knowingly dishonest and baseless smear campaign against the hospital and its personnel, making false claims, including the allegation that the hospital was "engaged in widespread kidnapping, trafficking, and killing of Idaho children." (Idaho Capital Sun)
"The professionals who took this stand, under oath, testified that the infant was under risk of death, severely malnourished, dehydrated. And although the doctors didn't use that term, that infant was starving — and potentially starving to death," [the attorney representing the hospital] Erik Stidham said.
The doctors who treated the infant were barred from publicly disputing Bundy and Rodriguez's false claims due to health privacy law, Stidham said. Bundy has also been twice arrested for trespassing in the Idaho Statehouse in unrelated incidents.
He led an armed standoff at an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016, but was acquitted in federal court, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
These two cowards were too fearful to attend the trial, where a jury handed them a $26.5 million damage bill and generously added another $26 million in punitive costs.
