Charges Against Archeologist Dismissed

DAYTON – Charges have been dismissed against the last of three archeologists charged with theft and destruction of prehistoric artifacts from the Umatilla National Forest and Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in 2013. Charges were dismissed against Richard Lee Lyman in a plea agreement filed in Columbia County Superior Court on Dec. 2.

Lyman, 64, is a professor and chair of the department of anthropology at the University of Missouri. On July 22 he was charged with second-degree theft and second-degree malicious mischief, and making false statements to a public servant, based on a United States Fores...