Authorities charged two former Boy Scouts of America leaders Friday with felony and criminal mischief. They allegedly toppled a 170-million-year-old rock formation at a Utah state park last year.
A YouTube video shows Glenn Taylor pushing a massive rock from its pedestal in Goblin Valley State Park. His scout leader David Hall videotaped this as they laughed and sang, reported Reuters.
Forty-five-year-old Taylor was charged with felony criminal mischief and Hall, 42, was charged with one count of felony for helping in criminal mischief, Director of Utah State Parks, Fred Hayes, said in a statement. The two can face up to five years of imprisonment if found guilty and would have to pay a fine of $5,000 and compensation for damages to Utah's protected natural resources.
The two men previously defended their actions saying that they pushed the rock so that no passersby could get hurt. "That wasn't going to last very long at all," Hall told CNN affiliate KUTV. He added that he would do it again. "One gust of wind and a family's dead."
Their leadership positions were taken back by the Boy Scouts of America after the video went viral. The incident created outrage among the Utah people.
However, the duo might not have been charged if the video had not been put on the social media. Jeff Rasmussen, the deputy director of Utah State Parks and Recreation, said that in his 22 years of profession, he did not hear anything about goblins pushing the rock off their pedestals.
"Obviously, we're very concerned and upset that somebody would come and destroy this natural wonder that took millions of years to be formed," Rasmussen told KUTV.
Utah State Parks spokesman Eugene Swalberg said no rock could have been a danger to the visitors.
The rocks in the Goblin Valley are formations of sedimentary rock that dated back to the late Jurassic era and are known as goblins, according to Reuters.
