This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman began his jail sentence Tuesday afternoon.

Lyman, 51, was booked into Washington County Jail, according to the jail website. A federal judge sentenced him in December to a 10-day stay and three years of probation for his role in an ATV protest ride down San Juan County's Recapture Canyon in 2014.

The misdemeanor case sharply divided public opinion, already split over Utah's public-lands-transfer debate, in the months since jurors found the commissioner guilty of trespassing and conspiracy. Lyman's crimes stem from organizing, promoting and driving in an illegal protest in which 50 riders drove into the canyon, east of Blanding, that federal land managers closed in 2007 to protect ancient American Indian sites.

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