Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against four members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, the group that is gathering for a massive July Fourth celebration in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest.
Edward James Jenkins, New Orleans, and Ernie Gunnoe, Mantua, Ohio, are each charged in U.S. District Court with one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcers with the U.S. Forest Service. Jenkins, 61, was charged Monday and Gunnoe, 23, on Friday.
The charges stemming from an incident Wednesday are the first felony charges to come from the gathering, which is expected to draw as many as 20,000 people before it ends July 7.
Gunnoe is accused of recruiting a group of people to prevent officers and a tow-truck operator from removing cars that were blocking access to a Forest Service road in the area. Group members had refused to comply with previous requests to move the vehicles, according to court documents.