SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 18, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) — A Southern Utah county commissioner who challenged the federal government’s management of Western public lands will get 10 days in jail and three years probation for organizing an ATV protest ride through a closed canyon.
Federal prosecutors wanted San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman to serve up to a year behind bars on his conviction on federal misdemeanors.
Lyman and about 50 others on May 10 of last year rode their ATVs on a trail off-limits to vehicles, in a canyon that cuts through ruins that are nearly 2,000 years old. The ride was meant to protest what the participants called the overreaching federal government.
Attorneys for Lyman asked a judge to sentence him to probation and community service rather than prison time.
