By admin 
A father-son duo accused of abducting two federal wildlife biologists in a remote part of Northern California pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court in Sacramento to charges of kidnapping, assault and weapons violations.
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Joseph Henrichsen, 49, and Phoenix Henrichsen, 23, were arrested July 17 after authorities said they held two women at gunpoint and engaged in a 15-hour standoff with law enforcement.
They listened but did not speak as Magistrate Judge Sean Riordan read the charges against them. Both are charged with two counts of kidnapping a federal employee. The elder Henrichsen, whom prosecutors have painted as the ringleader, also is charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon against a federal employee, two counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of assault of a federal officer.
On Monday, the pair wore orange jail jumpsuits with their hands and feet shackled.
Phoenix Henrichsen, who made his first court appearance with scraggly long hair and looking exhausted, appeared Monday neatly groomed, with his hair pulled back in a bun. Joseph Henrichsen wore close-cropped hair and a bushy gray beard.
Neither prosecutors nor the defense lawyers representing the men discussed their motivations for abducting the scientists. However, at a previous hearing, Phoenix Henrichsen’s attorney, Kresta Daly, asked about obtaining a mental health evaluation for him.
A 2022 arrest near Bellingham, Washington, for threatening neighbors led a judge to order Joseph Henrichsen to undergo an evaluation at a psychiatric hospital, but he was soon released.
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The alleged kidnapping unfolded the morning of July 16 while the two biologists were studying frog habitats at Gumboot Lake Campground in Siskiyou County.
Joseph Henrichsen approached them as they worked, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, according to an FBI affidavit based on the victims’ accounts. He ordered them to put their hands in the air and turn around.
He then forced them to put their hands behind their backs and secured zip ties around their wrists, the affidavit said.
The women were then marched to a camping trailer where the Henrichsens had been living, the FBI said. Phoenix Henrichsen joined the group as they approached the trailer and guarded one or both of the women when his father was not present, the affidavit said.
Joseph Henrichsen also took each biologist separately to the U.S. Forest Service Nissan Frontier they had been using for work, driving one around while using her phone to make threatening calls and then holding the other in the vehicle for hours. According to the affidavit, he called law enforcement agencies and left threatening messages before officers negotiated the release of the hostages about 1 a.m.
The pair surrendered about an hour later and remain in the Sacramento County Main Jail. If convicted, they each face up to life in prison on the kidnapping charges. Joseph Henrichsen also faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge of assaulting a federal employee with a deadly weapon, up to seven years for brandishing a weapon during a crime of violence and up to one year for assaulting a federal officer.
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They are scheduled to return to court Nov. 30.