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KSJD Newscast - December 18th, 2015

  • San Juan County, Utah, Commissioner Phil Lyman will spend 10 days in jail for leading a motorized protest ride on a closed road in Recapture Canyon in 2014.

San Juan County, Utah, Commissioner Phil Lyman will spend 10 days in jail for leading a motorized protest ride on a closed road in Recapture Canyon in 2014. Co-defendant Monte Wells of Monticello will spend five days in jail. At their sentencing Friday in Salt Lake   City, U.S. District Judge David Nuffer also ordered three years of probation for both men. Lyman and Wells were convicted in May of two misdemeanors – riding on a road closed by the Bureau of Land Management, and conspiracy to do so. Lyman helped organize the ride as a protest against what he called “heavy-handed action” by the federal government, and Wells promoted the ride on his news blog. They could have faced up to one year in prison and $100,000 in fines. In October, Nuffer ordered them to pay $96,000 in restitution for damage done by other riders who traveled across archaeological sites. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Nuffer recommended Lyman serve his sentence in St. George following tax season, as Lyman is a CPA. The Tribune says at the sentencing, Lyman spoke about artifacts raids conducted by federal agents in Blanding in 2009 and how they had frightened and upset his constituents. Lyman has strong support in much of Utah. He was named Commissioner of the Year by the Utah Association of Counties, but gave back the award.
 

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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