San Juan County Commissioner appeals conviction for 2014 ATV protest ride

San Juan County Commissioner appeals conviction for 2014 ATV protest ride

(Purgatory Correctional Facility)


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ST. GEORGE — San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman filed an appeal Friday, saying the court was wrong to convict him of an illegal ATV protest ride.

Lyman is representing himself in the appeal filed in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. He argued in his opening brief that the protest he led didn't break any laws; that he was improperly disallowed from admitting evidence showing he was within the law; and that the U.S. District Court that heard his case had a conflict of interest with an activist group that opposed the protest.

Lyman served a 10-day jail sentence last month in the Purgatory Correctional Facility in Washington County for his May 2015 conviction for operation of off-road vehicles on public lands closed to off-road vehicles and conspiring to operate off-road vehicles on public lands closed to off-road vehicles, both misdemeanors. He was also sentenced to 36 months of probation and ordered to pay $96,000 in restitution.

Lyman led a group of protestors through Recapture Canyon in May 2014 in a show of opposition to the federal government's designation of the land. Lyman says the Bureau of Land Management has failed to show the road in Recapture Canyon that was the site of the ATV ride is a protected public highway.

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"(Before the protest ride), I reached a consensus with the BLM on how far down the road we could travel without fear of prosecution for trespass or damage, and once that agreement was met, I did nothing that could be considered contrary to that agreement," Lyman said in his appeal.

Lyman also said he was prohibited from introducing evidence in his criminal case that would have exonerated his actions during the protest ride.

"The district court erred when it prevented me from introducing evidence in my defense that the road on which I traveled was not part of the area closed to off-road travel," he wrote in the appeal.

Lyman also called into question U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby's impartiality during the case, saying he had a conflict of interest in the case that he chose not to disclose.

Shelby recused himself from the case about three weeks before a scheduled sentencing last year, citing his personal friendship with Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, an organization that voiced support of Lyman being prosecuted for the protest ride.

"When (Shelby) denied key evidence, I was baffled but naive to the behind-the-scenes relationships that might be influencing his actions," Lyman states in his appeal.

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Ben Lockhart

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