Four months after a shaky video captured two men toppling ancient rock formations at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, a grand jury has indicted two Nevada men believed to be depicted in the video.
A photograph, pulled from the video, showed two men pushing the formations from the top of a cliff along the Redstone Dunes Trail.
Last Friday a federal grand jury indicted two Henderson men in connection with the matter. According to allegations contained in the indictment, on April 7, 2024, Wyatt Clifford Fain, 37, and Payden David Guy Cosper, 31, pushed large chunks of ancient rock formations over the edge of a cliff onto the ground below while on or near the Redstone Dunes Trail, a Justice Department press release said.
Fain and Cosper were each charged with one count of injury and depredation of government property and one count of aiding and abetting. Damages to the geologic outcrop were estimated at more than $1,000.
The two men were arrested by the United States Marshals Service, and they made their initial court appearance Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koppe. A jury trial has been scheduled for October 8 before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey.
If convicted, the defendants each face up to ten years imprisonment.
The landscape that holds the Redstone Dunes Trail once was a vast desert, according to the National Park Service. "The dunes responsible for these formations existed one hundred forty million years ago. Over time, geological forces turned the loose dunes into hard sandstone," the agency notes on the park's website.
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Comments
Good news!
These individuals acted like teenagers. No thought given to whether such antics might not be a good idea. I'd give them a suspended prison sentence, a few thousand buck fine. I'd also make them write out "I will behave in all my future visits to national parks" a thousand times.
Oh, not so fast - or easy. 10 years will give them both ample time to fully understand and atone for their idiotic behavior.
Why? Why did they do this. What was their reasoning?
Throw the book at them. Ten-years in prison sounds appropriate to me!