Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"One of the fiercest animal battles you will ever see..."}]

Smile 6 17 23 v2

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, June 17, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One of the fiercest animal battles you will ever see...

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 17, 2023

 One of the fiercest animal battles you will ever see...

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Business & Tourism

Tourism

The Maverik gas station in Montrose, Colorado, can’t sell any diesel after someone dumped an RV’s waste tank into the station’s underground diesel supply.

The incident happened sometime on Monday, and a woman who answered the phone at the Montrose Maverik station on Tuesday confirmed that someone had dumped an RV waste tank into its underground diesel storage tank.

She said the pumps “are shut down right now,” that the store was busy, and hung up.

Cowboy State Daily hasn’t been able to confirm the status of the situation at the Montrose Maverik since that call. Subsequent calls weren’t answered.

Evan Peters shared details of the incident in the Facebook group Montrose Message Board.

“They dumped into the large manhole covers near the road directly into the diesel tank,” he wrote. “They have a dedicated dump at the larger pumps, but I guess someone decided to undo the manhole and dump there.”

To add insult to injury, Peters said a cashier at the Montrose Maverik told him the station had “just gotten a new delivery of diesel.”

Now, they’ll have to pump everything out of the tank and thoroughly clean it before it’s operational.

That’s what happens when someone’s No. 2 becomes someone else’s No. 1 problem.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Necessary Evil"}]

Bill Sniffin, an avid RV enthusiast and Cowboy State Daily columnist, said emptying an RV’s waste tank is “a necessary evil of RVing.”

“Let me tell you, it’s not fun,” he said. “It's usually a two-person operation, and it’s pretty darn rank.”

When Sniffin heard about the incident at the Montrose Maverik, he said it was “almost unbelievable.” 

He couldn’t see how anyone could confuse an RV dump station for the portal leading to a diesel fuel tank, regardless of how the gas station is situated.

“The dump stations are very obvious,” he said. “They’ll have signs all over the place, and it’s very self-explanatory.”

When people rent or buy RVs, they might not anticipate that anything that’s flushed down the on-board toilet needs to be emptied, usually every week or so. It’s the least glamorous part of traveling via RV.

“You can’t hire anybody to do it for you,” Sniffin said. “Luckily, I've got a wife who's a pretty good sport about it, but I have to admit that I have many pictures of her standing over the tank, holding her nose, and trying not to yuck.”

When discussing the Montrose incident, Sniffin kept referencing the 2006 film “RV” starring the late Robin Williams. In the movie, Williams plays an oblivious dad who rents an RV for a fun family vacation.

There’s a particular scene where Williams’s character has to empty the RV’s waste tank. Williams used his comedic genius to make the most of the all-too-relatable moment.

“He doesn’t know how to do it, so of course it explodes into a brown Old Faithful,” Sniffin said. “Anybody who's ever been in the RV business looks at that scene, cringes, and says, ‘For the grace of God, go sweet, those hoses better not pop loose.”

Sniffin has never had an incident as severe as depicted in “RV.” His worst experience was when one of the hoses he used to empty the waste tank split in the hot sun.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was a helluva mess,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Black Then Gray (In That Order)"}]

RVs have two notable tanks that need to be emptied regularly. The gray water tank holds the water used for sinks and showers, and the black water tank holds the smelly stuff.

According to Sniffin, an experienced RVer knows they need to empty the black tank before the gray tank.

“You have two valves and one hose,” he said. “The routine is to do the black valve first, so all the really bad stuff is gone, then you do the gray valve to rinse out all the stuff as it goes down.”

Where can you empty the black tank? It can be more logistically challenging than many people, especially first-time RVers, realize.

Most RV campsites have waste tank dump sites, either a singular designated spot or one at each hookup, if it’s a full-service site. RVers on the road can empty their black water tanks at fairgrounds, truck stops, and water treatment plants, usually for a fee.

Some gas stations, including Maverik, have dump stations available for free. 

They’re usually clearly marked, with lots of signage telling RVers of all stripes exactly where to back up and bail out their black water tanks.

That comes with a certain risk, as the Montrose Maverik discovered this week.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Everyone Has Stories"}]

Andrea Wood, general manager at the Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA campground, has an RV waste tank dump station at her campground. However, it’s only available to “registered campers.”

“They can reserve a water and electric site, which means they use our dump station, or they are in a full hookup site, which means they hook directly to the sewer system.”

Anyone else who asks to swing in and use their dump station is directed to the Crook County Fairgrounds in Sundance. It’s best not to take chances.

“Anyone who works at a campground will have fecal matter stories for you,” she said. “It is not a daily occurrence, but it happens with frequency, without question.”

Wood couldn’t recall a particularly “exciting” incident at the Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA campground, although there’s nothing exciting about it.

According to her, the most common problem is people “emptying their black water tanks into whatever hole they can find.”

“Not only is it inconvenient and gross, but it's a biohazard,” she said. “The cleanup is never much fun, but it's also a safety concern.”

That said, there’s a particular demographic that’s the most problematic. Nearly every incident Wood could recall involved inexperienced RVers who were “unaware” of what they were doing.

“Lots of people buy or rent campers thinking it's going to be a fun vacation thing, but they don't truly grasp the maintenance and what's required to take a rig down the road,” she said.

Sometimes, people dump their black water tanks in the first spot they find. Sometimes, they don’t even wait for a promising pipe.

“Some people don't bother to put their black water tubing into the sewer hole, and have dumped it straight onto the ground,” Wood said. “Other times, they found something alongside the road that looked like it might work for them and pumped their things into that. 

"It's always amazing to us where they choose to dump, because it's really, it's quite simple.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Unbelievably Newbie'"}]

Sniffin’s guess was that whoever was responsible for the incident was “unbelievably newbie.” They would have had to unscrew the lid to the subterranean fuel tank, insert their hose into it, and let ‘er rip.

“It’s almost unbelievable,” he said. “The whole process is so unpleasant that it's bad enough, but then doing it in the wrong place is just unbelievable to me.”

Wood shared the assessment that the perpetrator was probably a first-time or inexperienced RVer. However, she added that many RV mishaps are caused by foreign tourists who have even less experience with RVs than the average American.

“We get lots of German and French travelers that travel with Cruise America, and they are frequently very unfamiliar with the RVs,” she said. “It's just about knowing and understanding the rig that they're driving and being able to use it the way it's meant to be used, which many don’t.”

Regardless of their experience or ethnicity, the person who made the mistake in Montrose just made their vacation a lot more expensive.

Sniffin, who used to work at a gas station, knows how laborious and meticulous it is to maintain fuel tanks. Correcting the mistake at the Montrose Maverik will be costly and time-consuming.

“I can't imagine the process they're going to have to go through to clean that tank out,” he said. “The whole process of dumping fuel into a fuel tank is very antiseptic. 

"The people driving those trucks make sure not a speck of dirt or anything gets into the tanks or the hose there because that could ultimately mess up a car.”

The Montrose Maverik will have to empty and thoroughly clean the underground diesel tank, along with all the associated filters, pumps, and hoses, before refilling it.

“It's going to be very expensive,” Sniffin said. “If you make that kind of mistake, you are in an unbelievable world of hurt.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Never Never Land"}]

Most people don’t have issues emptying their RV’s black water tank. Wood thinks it’s incredibly simple.

“There's literally only one spot to do it, and all that’s there is a PVC pipe with a cap on it,” she said. “You take the cap off, put your sewer hose in there, and that's where it goes.”

Wood could believe that someone would mistake a fuel tank for an RV dump station, as incredulous as she was that anyone could get that far without realizing what they were doing. 

For her, it’s a reminder that people need to understand RVs before renting or buying one.

“If you're going to use the bathroom in your camper, that goes somewhere,” she said. “It doesn't just disappear into Never Never Land. All of that raw sewage has to go somewhere, and it’s your responsibility to do that the right way at the right spot.”

RV and Montrose Maverik 5 27 26

<title>RV Driver Empties Waste Tank Into Colorado Gas Station's Diesel Supply | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Colorado Maverik station can’t sell any diesel after someone dumped an RV’s waste tank into the station’s underground diesel supply tank this week. One avid RVer said the mistake is “almost unbelievable … the dump stations are very obvious."

RV Driver Empties Waste Tank Into Colorado Gas Station's Diesel Supply

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Star Valley man accused of killing his wife during a drunken argument in November 2024 was found not guilty Tuesday by a jury following a six-day trial that ran a day longer than originally planned.

The closely watched case stretched through the holiday weekend before jurors ultimately returned an acquittal.

The verdict marked the latest turn in a case that has hung over western Wyoming since Jared Erickson’s wife, Tennille, was found dead in her Star Valley home in November 2024.

"We appreciate the jury's hard work on the difficult case," said Erickson's defense attorneys, Tom Fleener and Devon Peterson. 

Assistant District Attorney Blaine Nelson, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, declined to comment on the trial or the verdict. Multiple voicemails to the District Attorney who filed the inititial charges, Dan Itzen, were not returned. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Contentious Case Finally Reaches Jury"}]

The case had drawn attention months earlier during a contentious 

in Lincoln County Circuit Court, where prosecutors laid out the foundation of their allegations while defense attorneys pushed back hard against the state’s theory.

During those earlier hearings, prosecutors argued they believed the evidence pointed toward criminal responsibility, while the defense repeatedly characterized the case as built too heavily on assumptions and speculation.

[{"type":"text","text":"That back-and-forth carried into the trial."}]

Over six days, attorneys questioned witnesses, picked apart investigative decisions and dug into forensic details as jurors heard two very different versions of what happened inside the Ericksons’ home that night in November 2024.

At times, objections and disagreements between the attorneys slowed testimony as both sides argued over wording, evidence and how far witnesses should be allowed to go in their answers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then in Tuesday, jurors reached a unanimous conclusion: not guilty."}]

"It's hard to know what resonated most," said Fleener, "but we hope they sensed that we presented our case with honesty and integrity." 

The acquittal means Erickson will not face criminal punishment in connection with the case.

"This case has taken an emotional toll on all involved, and we hope the families and community can begin to heal," Fleener added. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Friend Calls Verdict 'So Disappointing'"}]

Among the witnesses called during the trial was Alison Penny, who said she had known Tennille Erickson “her whole life.”

Penny traveled from Jackson to Kemmerer expecting to testify early in the week, believing she would likely take the stand early in the trial. Instead, she and her husband spent much of the week holed up in a motel waiting for her to take the stand, which was pushed to Thursday.

“It’s been one of the most stressful, gut-wrenching things I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. 

“Now to have this be the outcome, I’m just so disappointed,” she added after learning Tuesday night that jurors had acquitted Erickson. 

“She was an excellent mother, she was an immaculate homemaker, a good friend, and she is missed,” Penny said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Death By Blunt Force Trauma"}]

alleged the case stemmed from a drunken argument between Jared and Tennille Erickson at their Star Valley Ranch home. 

According to court documents filed in the case, Jared Erickson called 911 on Nov. 17 and reported finding his wife unresponsive in a bedroom with blood and vomit on the bed.

Investigators later alleged Tennille Erickson spent much of the following day secluded in the room after the couple argued the night before while drinking.

Court records said Tennille sent her husband a photo showing bruising and swelling on her face along with a text asking whether she should “send these around.” 

Prosecutors also pointed to messages Tennille allegedly sent to a friend claiming her husband had beaten her.

Responding deputies and medical personnel observed bruising on Tennille Erickson’s forehead, eye and torso when they arrived at the home. Prosecutors later argued those injuries were consistent with blunt-force trauma and not an accidental fall, according to the affidavit.

Defense attorneys, however, maintained Tennille Erickson struggled with alcoholism and health issues, and argued her injuries could have resulted from falls or other non-criminal causes. 

Court records indicated Jared Erickson told investigators the couple had a volatile relationship and both had been drinking before the argument.

After a roughly seven-month investigation, Erickson was charged with manslaughter in May 2025. A year later, he maintains his innocence and has been cleared of criminal charges. 

Lincoln County Courthouse Kemmerer 7 25 23

<title>Lincoln County Jury Finds Star Valley Man Not Guilty In Wife’s Death | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After a six-day trial that spanned the Memorial Day weekend, a Lincoln County jury on Tuesday found Jared Erickson not guilty in the death of his wife. "This case has taken an emotional toll on all involved," said his defense attorney. 

Lincoln County Jury Finds Star Valley Man Not Guilty In Wife’s Death

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

A local woman is suing the Green River Police Department and Wyoming Department of Family Services officials on claims she 

 a malicious child abuse prosecution last year. She was arrested for DUI one day before her lawsuit was filed. 

 to wake her 5-year-old sister Annabelle, who lay on their babysitter's couch in Kemmerer with her pulse fading after a brutal beating.

Annabelle died hours later from injuries the girls’ babysitter, Cheri Marler, inflicted on her with her hands, feet, and a wooden spoon.

 more than a year later, and a judge sentenced Marler to life in prison without parole.

Investigators at the time observed numerous injuries on the 4-year-old as well, court documents say. 

 with her foster mother Vallory Dodson, and Dodson’s husband.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dodson was not involved in the Kemmerer incident. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bruises And A Black Eye"}]

An evidentiary affidavit filed in December 2024 in Sweetwater County Circuit Court says the girl’s teacher in Green River voiced concerns that autumn about bruises, a black eye covered with thick makeup, and a broken arm sustained by the then-kindergarten-age girl.

The girl told Green River Police Department Detective Martha Holzgrafe that November that she’d tripped while walking. She also said she’d been hurt 

pushed on the playground, the affidavit says.

About five weeks later, the girl gave Holzgrafe another interview and said Dodson had grabbed her by the ribs and thrown her to the ground. 

By then, says a court filing from Dodson's counsel, the state had placed the girl in her teacher's home. 

Sweetwater County Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney Micaela Lira charged Dodson with felony child abuse Dec. 20, 2024, and police arrested Dodson, who was reportedly 

Lira asked the court to dismiss the charge permanently the following June. 

She says she did so to guard against re-traumatizing the child by making her testify. 

“While preparing for trial, the state met with multiple individuals, witnesses, support members for the alleged victim, and the alleged victim herself,” wrote Lira in the June 5, 2025, motion to the Sweetwater County District Court. “

"After consultations with the alleged victim’s current caregivers (I find) any form of testifying in this matter would be detrimental to the 

 of the alleged victim and may (undo) the growth and healing she has 

District Court Judge Suzannah Robinson granted Lira’s request and dismissed the case the next day.

Lira reiterated her point in a Tuesday interview, telling Cowboy State Daily that the girl was emphatic about not testifying, “because if she did, it would bring back all the memories of what happened to her when she lived there.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe echoed that."}]

“What we put in the motion is accurate,” he said. “It wasn’t something we did lightly. There are rare occasions where that’s actually the case — where testifying is absolutely worse than what would have happened (otherwise). You know, than getting justice in this particular case.”

The prosecutors filed that motion to dismiss the charge about one year before the Wyoming Legislature passed a law allowing children in cases of violence to testify via a video link and bring comfort objects or a therapy dog into the courtroom with them.  

Now Dodson is suing the city of Green River, the Wyoming Department of Family Services, and various officials, saying authorities undertook her arrest and prosecution without probable cause and violated her rights.

Her civil complaint alleges a counterpoint to Lira’s motion, saying that, at least in DFS’s administrative handling of the incident, the child abuse case against Dodson lacked substance. 

The complaint says investigators didn’t request the girl’s medical records until months after filing the charge, and that multiple doctors opined that the girl’s broken arm was consistent with an injury sustained from falling.

The expert Dodson hired in her own case, Dr. Wade Jensen, reportedly said the break was most consistent with “a fall from a standing height.” 

The complaint says the emergency room doctor who'd tended the girl's broken arm did not report any abuse.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Little Did He Know"}]

Dodson’s attorney Jason Gay filed the civil complaint on her behalf in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on May 11.

Gay didn’t know at the time, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday, that Dodson had been arrested on suspicion of driving drunk with a toddler in her car one day earlier.

“That was a coincidence in timing,” said Gay Tuesday. “The lawsuit had been pending for a while.”

He’d sent the state and the city drafts of the complaint before its filing, and before that arrest, Gay added.

As for the DUI charge, Gay noted that his client is 30, saw her now-dropped child abuse case spread via the media, and after a “long, drawn-out process… ultimately dismissed.”

He pointed to her relative lack of criminal history before the felony case was filed and the media attention followed. 

“And I think you’re seeing the impact that that can have on a person,” Gay added.

Dodson remained in the Sweetwater County Detention Center on a $30,000 bond as of Tuesday, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. Court documents claim she rear-ended a Toyota 4Runner while driving drunk in Rock Springs.

A woman in the 4Runner was temporarily hospitalized, and Dodson at first faced the felony of DUI causing a serious bodily injury – which carries a penalty of up to a decade in prison.

But Lira dropped that charge upon the realization that the victim’s injuries weren't serious enough to carry the charge, court documents say.

Still, Dodson faces three remaining charges of DUI with a child passenger, improperly buckling a child under 9 and following another vehicle too closely.

Dodson pleaded not guilty to those three charges May 20. She could face up to a year in prison and fines if convicted.

The alleged crash happened two days after Dodson pleaded guilty for breach of peace – in a case where she was originally charged in March with domestic battery, on claims she attacked her husband with his wristwatch after an argument about his inability to cook quinoa.

She had received six months' unsupervised probation in that case, with the threat of jail time if she failed probation.  

Dodson’s lawsuit accuses Green River Police Department officials of 

It accuses DFS officials of exacerbating that detention by disregarding evidence that didn’t support “their theory of abuse,” and it accuses investigators from both agencies of advancing a malicious prosecution against Dodson.

It also accuses DFS officials of abuse of process and violating Dodson’s rights.

It accuses officials from both agencies of conspiring against Dodson to interfere with her imminent adoption of the girl.

The civil complaint says Dodson took the 6-year-old girl to the emergency room on Oct. 17, 2024, due to pain in the girl’s right arm.

At that time, the girl had indicated another child at school pulled her arm, the complaint says. Dodson had been the girl’s foster parent and was finalizing her adoption of both that girl and the girl’s other, surviving sister.

The complaint says the doctor diagnosed the girl with an arm fracture. Because Dodson was a foster parent, the doctor reportedly contacted DFS to tell the agency about the diagnosis and gain authorization to perform a surgery on the girl.

One month later, Holzgrafe responded to the elementary school to investigate the girl’s black eye.

The girl said her eye was injured while she was playing with a dog, “and the Wyoming Department of Family Services later confirmed this to be the case,” the document says.

[{"type":"text","text":"School staff also told Holzgrafe about the girl’s October arm injury."}]

Both the girl and Dodson said the girl had injured her arm while walking home from the bus.

“Holzgrafe chose not to preserve the video and it was deleted by the school district,” the complaint alleges.

For a few weeks after the judge dismissed Dodson’s criminal case, Wyoming was still waging administrative child protection proceedings against her, court documents say.

But that ended that August when DFS declared its investigators’ findings “unsubstantiated,” the complaint adds. 

Dodson’s lawsuit accuses six people, all in their official capacities, of wrongdoing, as well as the city of Green River.

[{"type":"text","text":"Those six are:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS Director Korin Schmidt"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Green River Police Chief Shaun Sturlaugson"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS social worker Victoria Collett"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS special investigator Cassie Torres"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS quality improvement manager Lisa Bauman-Brown."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The case is ongoing. "}]

20240526 green river 2088

<title>Green River Woman Sues Cops, DFS For Malicious Prosecution In Child Abuse Case | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Green River woman is suing police and child protection officials for malicious prosecution. Prosecutors charged her with child abuse, then dismissed the charge seven months later, saying they did not want to re-traumatize the child in court.

Green River Woman Sues Cops, DFS For Malicious Prosecution In Child Abuse Case

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Government & Politics

EVANSTON — Prometheus Hyperscale laid out a vision for its massive 1.2 gigawatt data center campus on a ranch east of town owned by native Trenton Thornock. It’s a place where cattle still graze and the residents prize open country and sky.  

That includes Thornock, the fifth-generation ranching family member told a packed room of Uinta County residents, many of whom are wary of becoming the next front in Wyoming’s data center boom.  

“Our family ranches here, and my great-great-grandmother homesteaded here down Bear River back in 1869,” Thornock said. “I started the company because I saw two things that were wrong with the data center industry. 

"They’re using way too much power for the amount of compute that they’re getting out and they’re using way too much water for cooling.”

Thornock said he started his company in 2020 with the idea of first innovating water cooling systems and doing things in a more sustainable way and second improving the economy of his home state.

Wyoming has struggled with outmigration of its youth, losing most of them by age 30 to other states. 

It’s a dynamic Thornock, as an Evanston graduate, said he's all too familiar with. He knows plenty of his Wyoming classmates who wanted to stay in Wyoming, but couldn’t find high enough paying jobs to support a family.

Fifth-generation Wyoming rancher Trenton Thornock pitched a huge 1.2 gigawatt data center on family land to a skeptical Evanston crowd on Tuesday. The project is facing a rising tide of opposition against data centers locally and across Wyoming.

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 17, 2023

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