The FBI sent two agents to attend religious services at a Mormon church in Burns on Jan. 10 as part of its investigation into the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, according to court testimony Wednesday.

FBI Agent Ben Jones, who belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, said he told his supervisors that if he goes to the church, "I was going to go as who I was.''

"Was I there to investigate you? Partly yes," Jones said, under questioning by defendant Ryan Bundy, who was at the church that day. "I was there to see if you were recruiting people."

Jones said he and another agent attended the service that day, and identified themselves as Mormons and by name. Ryan Bundy, he noticed, was seated a few chairs away. They shook hands but didn't speak to one another, the agent said.

"Neither of us were attempting to hide who we were," Jones testified.

He said that he and the other agent attended "in part to see what you were doing but also to worship."

The agent was called back to testify in federal court in Portland on Wednesday as defense lawyers and defendants began presenting their case in the federal conspiracy trial stemming from the 41-day occupation of the eastern Oregon refuge.

They called back several other FBI agents, including two who refuted some prior testimony by a Harney County sheriff's lieutenant and refuge neighbor and rancher Andy Dunbar. Another agent talked about intelligence obtained before the Jan. 2 takeover of the refuge and acknowledged there were informants on the refuge during the occupation.

Defense lawyers also called back the refuge manager and archaeologist for brief questioning, and a Siletz tribal elder who supported the occupiers.

On Jan. 1, FBI agents learned of a plan "to take the refuge," FBI Agent Chadd Lapp testified.

Lapp said he heard the information from another agent. Ammon Bundy's lawyer Marcus Mumford referred to an email sent to the chief regional refuge law enforcement office that he said made mention of "intelligence from four people within the militia about a plan to take the refuge."

"I remember telling him there was intelligence. It was a potential target," Lapp said. "It was really basic words...Malheur...wildlife refuge, and there may be a plan to take it."

Under questioning from Mumford, Lapp said he conveyed the intelligence to several people in his office, but didn't do anything further with the information.

Lapp also acknowledged that government informant Mark McConnell, who was driving the Jeep in which Ammon Bundy was riding when police stopped it on Jan. 26 and arrested Bundy and other occupation leaders, likely was paid by the FBI for his help.

Lapp wasn't allowed to say how much McConnell was paid, but said he had seen a bureau proposal to pay McConnell.

In other testimony, Lapp refuted prior statements that Harney County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Needham had made in court during the government's case. Lapp, referring to his written report, had interviewed Needham about his visit with co-defendant Ryan Payne, who had come to the sheriff's office on his own one day.

According to Lapp's report, Needham had mentioned that Payne had told him that an elected official should be removed from office "by any means necessary" if they were not upholding the Constitution. Lapp said Needham didn't relay to him any reference Payne made to Sheriff Dave Ward, and didn't suggest that the removal "by an means necessary" should include "death," as Needham had testified previously.

Ammon Bundy's lawyer Wednesday played for jurors a January call between his client and an FBI negotiator stationed in Bend, but the lengthy conversation may have helped the prosecution's case.

"The last thing we want to do is leave the refuge,'' Ammon Bundy told Agent Christopher Luh on Jan. 21.

If he and his supporters were to leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Bundy continued, "Those people who are doing this will go right back into the refuge, the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and put the chains right back onto the people."

Lawyers for Ammon Bundy, the leader of the refuge occupation, and six co-defendants have repeatedly argued in court that their clients never intended to prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Bureau of Land Management from doing their work -- the thrust of the federal conspiracy charge they face. They've even argued that defendants haven't even talked about workers from those federal agencies.

Instead, they've said that they were engaged in a political protest, and intended to stake claim to and they didn't believe that the federal government should control.

During the phone call, Bundy called the refuge the "primary tool" for the persecution of Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steve Hammond, and argued that the federal government didn't have authority to control the land. He said he had no intent on any violence but wasn't going to yield and wanted the Hammonds to be returned to their family, and the refuge land to be turned over to the people of Harney County.

Earlier Wednesday, jurors heard from an elder in the Siletz tribe, Sheila Warren. She had visited the refuge for about two hours on Jan. 24 and spoke highly of the people she met. Repeatedly, the judge instructed Warren simply to answer the questions asked, and not volunteer information.

Warren, a registered nurse who worked for Indian Health Services and later Veterans Affairs, said she visited the refuge on Jan. 24 "to get to the bottom" of whether the artifacts that belonged to the Burns Paiute Tribe had been harmed in any way, as she had heard on the news.

"I was trying to get a feel for the place so I could tell what was true and what was not," she said.

She described the dozen people she met at the refuge as "very friendly," "very open," and "respectful," and said she didn't notice any firearms there.

"They were not tearing things up. I noticed a lot of areas that had been cleaned," she testified.

She said the artifacts were "dirty, and they were dusty," and they had rodent droppings on them, but they were in tact and not damaged.

Defendant Ryan Bundy, who is representing himself, asked if she ever heard people at the refuge talk about preventing refuge employees from coming to the property.

"Just the opposite. They said they were not threatening or hurting anyone," Warren said.

During cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight established that the Siletz Tribe had disavowed Warren's visit to the refuge.

"I'm not speaking on behalf of the tribe," Warren said.

Knight then inquired, didn't you refuse to speak to the FBI "but you were willing to speak to Mr. Ryan Bundy for 45 minutes?"

"I didn't trust the FBI," Warren blurted out.

The judge immediately admonished her. "Ma'am, please stop speaking out," Brown said.

Mumford followed up, asking Warren why she didn't speak to the FBI.

"Because I heard that five of them...were under investigation for lying," she said. The judge cut her off mid-sentence, and her statement was stricken.

After a brief break, Warren was allowed back on the stand -- only after the judge again advised her not to offer any information beyond the scope of a question, and demanded to know what the remaining questions would be.

"You must not continue to volunteer answers and go beyond the questions," the judge told her. "You could cause a mistrial."

With the jury back, defense lawyer Tiffany Harris questioned Warren.

In response to Harris' questions, Warren said FBI Agent Ronnie Walker had called her in May, but she didn't talk to him because she felt threatened by him.

FBI Agent Burns also was questioned about his Jan. 23 phone call with a refuge neighbor and rancher Andy Dunbar, who testified during the government's case that he had never spoken to Ammon Bundy. However, in Burns' report on his conversation with Dunbar, he noted that Dunbar mentioned he had spoken to Ammon Bundy.

FBI negotiator Marc Maxwell, who also returned to court Wednesday for defense questions, spoke about his talks with the four holdouts, namely David Fry before his surrender. Five to six law enforcement vehicles moved onto the refuge, out of sight, on Feb. 10, hoping to "affect a peaceful surrender'' that day, Maxwell said.

On Feb. 11, he said, Fry talked to him by phone about killing himself, and his fear of being sexually assaulted if he went to jail. Maxwell told him he could be placed in segregation, and tried to talk to Fry about his family.

"At some point, he said he wanted pizza and a smoke, and if you all say 'Halleluyah,' he'd come out," Maxwell testified. "I said 'Halleluyah,' and he came out."

The defense plans to call the Rev. Franklin Graham to testify first thing Thursday morning, as well Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward. Ammon Bundy may also take the stand Thursday if there's time, his lawyer said.

If any of the defendants who are representing themselves plan to testify, they will be questioned by another lawyer, the judge said. It would be hard for jurors, she noted, to keep "a straight face,'' if a defendant posed their own questions and then answered them on the stand.

At the start of the day, Judge Brown pressed defense lawyers to coordinate their plans about which witnesses to call, and to get it done quickly. "Folks make a decision. Get someone in here."

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian