Bikers Guilty of Riding in Mojave Desert

A federal jury in Santa Ana on Friday found four bikers guilty of deliberately violating a federal order that prohibits motorcycling in areas of the Mojave Desert which are inhabited by a threatened species of desert tortoise.

After the guilty verdicts were returned, U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor ordered the four men to pay fines of $850 each. They are Rick Sieman, Wesley Holmes, Patrick Martin and Barry Van Dyke, actor Dick Van Dyke’s son.

A fifth defendant, Lowell Webb, was found not guilty.

The bikers had organized an off-road ride last November to protest the cancellation of the Barstow-to-Las Vegas dirt bike race. That race, begun in 1967 and considered one of the premiere amateur dirt bike races in the world, was halted because a species of desert tortoise roamed the roadway.

In the years that the race was held, environmentalists had strongly opposed the event, saying the bikes tore up the sensitive desert habitat.

Before the 1990 race, the federal government listed the desert tortoise as a threatened species deserving protection.

The Bureau of Land Management had temporarily closed sections of the desert to thwart the protest ride. Assistant U.S. Atty. Bart Williams, who prosecuted the case, said the men purposely entered the closed area and were chased for about 30 minutes by rangers and sheriff’s deputies before being arrested.

During the four-day trial, the men argued that they were not guilty, contending that they were not on public land but rather were on private property that could not be closed by the government.