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SALT LAKE CITY — Government attorneys have rebutted claims that a federal judge's friendship with an environmental group's lawyer prevented him from being impartial in the trial of San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman.
And a Garfield County commissioner now wants Gov. Gary Herbert to intervene in the case to influence a recusal of Judge Robert J. Shelby.
Lyman's attorney filed a motion in U.S. District Court last week seeking for Shelby to remove himself from the case because he is longtime friends with Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance legal director Steven Bloch and his wife.
The Utah U.S. Attorney's Office says Bloch wasn't a party to the case and there is no reason for Shelby to step aside.
"The 'interest-of-my-friend's-group-is-my-interest' standard is not, has not been, and should never be the rule for judicial recusal," federal prosecutor Jared Bennett wrote.
A jury convicted Lyman and Monticello City Councilman Monte Wells of organizing and participating in an illegal ATV protest ride in Recapture Canyon near Blanding. Two others were acquitted.
Lyman and Wells face up to one year in prison and fines and restitution exceeding $300,000. Sentencing on the misdemeanor charges is scheduled for September.
The Bureau of Land Management closed the canyon in 2007 to protect ancestral Puebloan ruins. Many locals objected to the closure, asserting it was arbitrary and unnecessary, and thwarted a review process mandated by federal law.
Lyman further contends that Bloch urged the U.S. Attorney's Office to prosecute him and had a "high level" of involvement in the decision to file charges.
Bennett wrote that neither Bloch nor any member of SUWA participated in prosecutors' discussions about how to try the case against Lyman and the other defendants.
SUWA attorney Liz Thomas, however, did provide the BLM news articles and Lyman's Facebook posts about the protest ride and urged the agency to enforce its closure order by recording the event, issuing citations and doing a damage assessment.
"SUWA's desire to meet and communicate with BLM regarding the management of Recapture Canyon does not evidence a high level of involvement in the prosecution of Mr. Lyman," Bennett wrote.
Meantime, Garfield County Commission Chairman Leland Pollock wants Herbert to get involved.
"Please consider this letter my most aggressive personal request for your strongest efforts to influence a recusal by Judge Shelby in the Phil Lyman case," he wrote to the governor Tuesday.
Pollock contends Shelby's relationship with Bloch and "by extension SUWA give the strong suspicion if not factual basis of partiality and bias." Bloch's influence with Shelby in private social settings may even be more powerful than if he were in the courtroom, he wrote.
Herbert spokesman Jon Cox said the governor's office has received dozens of letters and calls about Shelby's role in the Lyman case.
Cox said it would not be appropriate for the governor to try to influence a judicial decision.
Herbert is among state and local politicians who have come to Lyman's defense with their pocketbooks. The governor gave $10,000 for Lyman to appeal his conviction. Lyman has not yet filed an appeal.
That and other private donations poured in after the state's Constitutional Defense Council declined to fund Lyman's appeal. Republican members of the council believe the BLM did not properly close the canyon and that Lyman was wrongfully prosecuted for leading the protest ride.
