Grand jury indicts duo for damaging ancient Lake Mead formation

Wyatt Clifford, 37, and Payden David Guy Cosper, 31, both of Henderson, Nevada, were indicted by a federal grand jury on suspicion of causing more than $1,000 worth of damage in the national park, which spans parts of Nevada and Arizona, according to an Aug. 23 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. The two men were arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service and are each charged with one count of battery and depredation of government property and one count of aiding and abetting, according to the Justice Department.

While on or near the Redstone Dunes Trail, Clifford and Cosper pushed large chunks of the rock formations off the edge of a cliff and onto the ground, the Justice Department said.

“Two idiots destroying what nature created over thousands of years in front of a screaming little girl,” read the caption of a cellphone video on Instagram that showed a pair of men on April 7 deliberately pushing the top of a rock formation down a narrow canyon and turning it into rubble.