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KSJD Newscast - September 14th, 2015

  • A third judge steps aside in San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman's trespassing case.
  • Montezuma County commissioners express concern about sustainability of pretrial services program.
  • Speed limit reduced on a one-mile stretch of Echo Basin Road.

Yet a third judge has stepped aside in the case of two men convicted of illegally riding ATVs on a closed road in Utah. San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman and news blogger Monte Wells were found guilty by a jury in federal district court in May of two misdemeanors related to a protest ride through Recapture Canyon in 2014. After Lyman filed a motion seeking a new judge for his sentencing because District Judge Robert Shelby was the friend of the legal director of an environmental organization, Shelby voluntarily recused himself. The judge who was then assigned the case recused herself on September 11th because while previously serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for Utah, she had represented the federal government in cases involving rights-of-way through public lands. Then on Monday, the judge who had received the assignment after her, David Sam, also recused himself, without explanation. Lyman and Wells were to be sentenced on September 15th but that has been postponed.

Also on Monday, the Montezuma County commissioners expressed concern that the pretrial services program operated by the sheriff’s office no longer-seems to be self-sustaining. The program allows people charged with crimes but not convicted to stay out of jail and avoid paying bail before trial by agreeing to certain conditions. They are required to pay fees to be in the program but some 40 percent do not, Sheriff Steve Nowlin told the commissioners. He said attempts to force the non-compliant to pay up threaten to turn the sheriff’s office into a collections agency. The commissioners suggested that the probation office could oversee the pretrial services program instead of the sheriff.

And the Montezuma County commissioners ratcheted down the speed limit on a one-mile stretch of the Echo Basin Road Monday following a public hearing at which residents voiced concern about dangerous driving on the route. The board voted to reduce the speed from 35 to 25 mph on Road M west of Road 44 and south of Road 43.5. Commissioners said they want to take a look at ways to improve safety in the entire area before spring.
 

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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