Federal Jury Told That Bikers Entered Closed Area of Desert

After a heated protest by motorcycle enthusiasts over the cancellation of a Barstow-to-Las Vegas dirt bike race, five bikers knowingly violated a federal order closing sections of the Mojave Desert, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Bart Williams, who finished presenting his case to a federal jury Wednesday, said after court that on Nov. 24, 1990, four of the five defendants purposely entered a closed area of the desert, near the area where the race was to have occurred, and were chased for about 30 minutes by rangers and sheriff’s deputies before being arrested.

The fifth defendant, he said, crossed into prohibited land further along the proposed race route.

The Bureau of Land Management had temporarily closed the desert last November in an attempt to thwart an off-road protest ride by bikers who were upset over the cancellation of the Barstow-to-Las Vegas race.

The race, first run in 1967 and considered one of the premiere amateur dirt bike races in the world, was canceled, in effect, because a species of desert tortoise roamed the raceway.

Before the annual race, the federal government last year listed the slow-moving reptile as a “threatened” species deserving protection. After that decision, sponsors said they were unable to secure the necessary permit for the race.

In years that the races were held, environmentalists had strongly opposed the event because they said off-road vehicles tore up the sensitive desert landscape and harmed its inhabitants.

The five bikers accused of violating a federal closure order are: Rick Sieman, Wesley Holmes, Patrick Martin, Lowell Webb and Barry Van Dyke, actor Dick Van Dyke’s son. If convicted, they face up to one year in prison.

Defense attorney Alan M. Ghaleb said Wednesday that his clients were not guilty of violating the closure order. He contended that four of his clients were not on public land but rather were on private property that could not be closed by the government. The fifth defendant, Lowell Webb, inadvertently crossed into the closed territory, he said.