High On Life Defendants To Appear In Court On Dec. 7
The three members of the High on Life group who pleaded not guilty to violating rules in Yellowstone and other national parks earlier this year will make their next appearance in federal court on Dec. 7.
Canadian nationals Charles Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Justis Price-Brown are scheduled for a status conference at the Yellowstone Justice Center in Mammoth, YNP, according to court records that were sealed until the past week.
On Nov. 1, they entered not guilty pleas to numerous misdemeanor charges of violations in three national parks, the most notorious of which happened in Yellowstone on May 14.
That day, they and New Zealand national Hamish Cross video-recorded signs warning people to stay on the boardwalk at the Grand Prismatic Spring, then walked on the spring to the water.
A visitor recorded their actions and reported them to a park ranger. The defendants were the subjects of multiple investigations by the National Park Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which lead to charges against them in Wyoming, Utah and California.
Their behavior in Wyoming and elsewhere drew international outrage and multiple federal charges.
On Nov. 1, Cross pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct by creating a hazardous condition and foot travel in a thermal area in Yellowstone.
Another High on Life member, Parker Heuser of British Columbia, pleaded guilty to riding a bike in wilderness and taking commercial photographs without a permit in Death Valley National Park. He also committed misdemeanors at the BLM-managed Bonneville Salt Flats.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Carman punished them with fines, and banned them for five years from entering national parks, national monuments, national forests, national grasslands and other federally managed wilderness and recreational areas.
Carman levied the same federal-land ban on Gamble, Lyakh and Price-Brown as part of the conditions of their release before their Dec. 7 court appearance.
The defendants also posted $5,000 unsecured bonds.
Besides the original charges -- punishable by up to six months in jail and $5,000 fines -- of disorderly conduct by creating a hazardous condition and foot travel in a thermal area in Yellowstone, the three face other misdemeanor charges for activity at other parks.
Gamble and Lyakh also are charged with possessing a bicycle in a wilderness area, operating a drone, commercial photography without a permit, using a bicycle off a roadway, and commercial photography.
Price-Brown is charged with commercial photography.
Last month, the former attorney for High on Life wrote in a court document that the U.S. Attorney's Office may seek jail time for Gamble.