DAYTON – Defense Attorney Michael De Grasse petitioned Judge Scott D. Galina to dismiss all charges against archeologist Richard Lee Lyman in Columbia County Superior Court on Sept. 16. Columbia County Prosecuting Attorney Rea Culwell requested that the case proceed to trial but said charges against Lyman’s associates, Dave Schmitt and Matthew Boulanger, would be dropped.

The three out-of-state professional archeologists were charged in July with theft of prehistoric artifacts from the Umatilla National Forest and Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in 2013.

Lyman, 64, is a professor and chair...