Five Charged in Utah ATV Protest Over Public Land Policies
The federal government this week made moves to respond to months of political protests earlier this year over Bureau of Land Management policies for public lands by charging five people who rode ATVs into a protected Utah canyon last May.
The Bureau of Land Management closed the canyon to motorized use in 2007 to keep wheels off its many archaeological sites, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. But in response, about 50 riders drove into the canyon to denounce what they saw as a gross overreach of federal authority.
"We respect the fact that the citizens of this State have differing and deeply held views regarding the management and use of Recapture Canyon, and recognize that they have the right to express those opinions freely,” Christensen said in a prepared statement. “Nevertheless, those rights must be exercised in a lawful manner and when individuals choose to violate the law, rather than engage in lawful protest, we will seek to hold those individuals accountable under the law.”
Phillip Lyman, a San Juan County commissioner who organized the ride, Monte Jerome Wells, Jay Demar Redd, Shane Morris Marian and Franklin Trent Holliday were all charged with conspiring to operate ATVs on closed public lands and carrying out the conspiracy by riding on those public lands. If convicted, each defendant faces up to a year in jail and $100,000 in fines.
U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen said only those suspected of organizing or promoting the illegal ride were charged, though many others participated, including one of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s sons.
The Utah ATV ride came one month after the federal government cancelled a roundup of several hundred cattle belonging Bundy amid threats of violence from militias who refused to acknowledge federal jurisdiction. The resulting standoff was the first of a series of actions on the antigovernment right to protest restrictions on public lands in the West—actions that set off a groundswell of antigovernment ire directed at federal land policies.
There has been on ongoing investigation for months related to the Bundy standoff, but no one has yet been charged with a crime.
