BOISE, Idaho — A St. Luke's Meridian doctor began to cry on the stand Friday during anti-government activist Ammon Bundy's civil trial as she explained how his protests and doxxing has affected her and her family's life.
On the night of March 11, 2022, an infant known as "baby Cyrus" was taken into the custody of Health and Welfare and transported to St. Luke's Hospital after his parents missed multiple doctor's appointments to remedy his health. He was malnourished and underweight, according to Meridian Police Department. The infant was the grandson of Diego Rodriguez, an associate of Bundy -- and when Bundy got his followers of the People's Rights Network involved, protests ensued demanding St. Luke's return the child to his parents.
Doxxing and harassment of the people involved in the child's care began, with the PRN group even sending out alerts to their members asking them to protest outside one Ada County judge's home. Largely, this hasn't ended. Bundy is still posting about Cyrus on the PRN website.
St. Luke's Health System and other plaintiffs then sued Bundy and Rodriguez for defamation and harassment, prompting a civil trial in the matter to determine how much damage compensation the hospital and others would receive. Bundy and Rodriguez have been absent for the trial.
Rachel Thomas was the lead physician in the St. Luke's Meridian Emergency Department that night -- and she was not exempt from the doxxing and harassment, she told the court Friday.
Thomas conducted the initial evaluation of 10-month-old Cyrus -- she said he looked like a baby from Haiti, where she does medical mission trips -- malnourished, thin, sunken eyes, discolored skin and had no ability to sit up.
If he did not receive proper care and continue the path he was on at home, "he would've died," she said. Thomas gave Cyrus a two-ounce bottle, and he took all of the formula and "fell asleep comfortably."
She immediately paged the pediatric unit at St. Luke's Boise for more comprehensive care. Thomas said the child was definitely not in good shape but was medically stable enough to be transported by ambulance. She began to work on a plan to transport the child there in an ambulance, but that was going to be difficult.
Meanwhile, in security footage shown in court, Bundy and his followers are shown outside in the ambulance bay area, filming and waving their hands at security officers attempting to de-escalate the situation. One security officer, Will Woods, told the court the protesters were yelling and screaming, demanding he hand the child back to them and accusing him of kidnapping.
"My fear was the crowd was going to breach the doors and jeopardize the safety of everyone inside," Woods said.
After asking Bundy to leave multiple times, it became clear he wasn't going anywhere.
Woods was a former police officer -- he and his family moved to Meridian and they thought it would be different, he said. "We came here to be safe. It seemed like this was going to throw a wrench in our plans."
Woods said even though he had experience with safety threats, he still felt unsafe. And he wasn't carrying a gun.
"To see something of that magnitude, I was surprised," he said. "One woman told me I was going to burn in hell."
In body camera footage shown in court, Thomas is shown telling Meridian Police officers about the gravity of the situation. In the background, yelling and screaming is heard.
Woods and Thomas consulted with their supervisors and agreed to lock the ambulance bay doors manually as the crowd of protesters grew.
"There was just an entire mob in my ambulance bay," she said.
Thomas said she made the difficult decision to divert ambulances to other hospitals.
This was a big decision, she said, considering her hospital gets up to five ambulances in the ER every hour on a Friday night. Thomas estimated that on that night, around 20 ambulances were sent away while Bundy and his followers stood outside blocking the emergency entrance.
Thomas said she had to be "creative" and come up with another plan to transport Cyrus to Boise that wasn't through the main entrance -- so EMS arrived at a back entrance with no lights or sirens. Thomas carried the child in a blanket through the hospital, with Meridian Police officers clearing each zone before her to make sure there were no threats. Cyrus was then safely transported from the Meridian location to Boise, and Bundy was arrested for trespassing onto the St. Luke's property.
More protests at the St. Luke's Boise location followed for days.
Nurses, doctors, and other employees were instructed not to enter or exit the building, and not open the doors to anyone. Incoming ambulances carrying patients were diverted away from St. Luke's to Saint Alphonsus and other area hospitals.
People seeking medical attention were asked to go to other facilities, while the general public was urged to avoid the area entirely.
But, it didn't end there.
Even though Cyrus was later returned to his family after a short stint in the pediatric unit, Rodriguez began posting videos on his website, Freedom Man Press. One of those videos depicted body camera footage of Thomas speaking with MPD officers. She told them the child was "medically stable" for transport, but Rodriguez argued in his videos that this meant Cyrus was healthy and St. Luke's was lying.
Rodriguez also posted a filing of EMS records which said Cyrus was a healthy baby with no interventions and he was medically stable, claiming this was from Thomas -- but Thomas said this was not her report and that her words were taken out of context. She told EMS Cyrus was a healthy baby at one point, and was "medically stable" meaning Cyrus would not die on the way to Boise from Meridian.
Rodriguez posted this video on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, which went viral in the far-right community.
"I was no longer able to read (the comments). They threatened my life and threatened to take my children," Thomas said. "They said I deserved to die."
Thomas and her husband installed security cameras at their home and eventually had to reach out to her children's principal for more advanced safety protocols. Her child's dance studio also began locking the doors early at night, just in case something were to happen.
"My daughter is a tough kiddo but --" Thomas began, but broke down in tears. She paused momentarily and asked for a tissue. "This caused our daughter to see a counselor."
Thomas and her husband also came up with a safe word for her children and spoke to them about what to do if they were approached by strangers or targeted in any way.
"I have constant fear to be in my own home," she told the jury. "I'm moving with my family to New Zealand in September and will hopefully be able to come back home."
When she told her daughter why she was leaving Friday morning to testify in the trial, she said her daughter was fearful she would be hurt -- but Thomas told her "it was time to stand up to the bully."
"We want to provide good-quality care. I'm here to show we don't tolerate bullies. This is our home... To affect my family? I'm not OK with it," she told the jury. "No matter how scary this is, how do I tell my kids to stand up to bullies if I won't?"
The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.
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