At a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon Wednesday W. Joseph Astarita, a member of the FBI's hostage response team pled not guilty to three counts of making false statements and two counts of obstruction of justice, charges stemming from the 2016 shooting death of Lavoy Finicum during the armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
"Special Agent Astarita was one of a number of FBI agents assigned to the occupation task of attempting to apprehend certain members and leader of the occupation including Robert Lavoy Finicum," said U.S. Attorney Billy Williams.
Finicum fled the scene of a traffic stop and was eventually shot and killed. An investigation revealed Finicum failed to follow multiple commands to put his hands up.
"Special Agent Astarita falsely stated he did not fire his weapon during the attempted arrest of Mr. Finicum when in fact he did," said Williams.
Lavoy Finicum's wife Janette Finicum said she was driving down the road when her phone wouldn't stop ringing with people trying to tell her about the FBI charges.
"I am grateful that they did indict him however there were other officers involved in the coverup," said Janette.
Janette said she believes multiple agents were involved in hiding evidence and trying to impede the federal investigation.
"I think that they all need to be held accountable," said Janette.
Janette said it also leads her to wonder what else the FBI may have lied about or if they have tampered with evidence. While she can only hope that justice will eventually be served, in the mean time she plans on trying to get her life back to normal while trying to clear her husband's name.
"He was a father, a son, he was a good man," said Janette.
