Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Let's go on a camel ride. It will be fun..."}]

Darwin 6 27 23

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Tuesday, June 27, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Let's go on a camel ride. It will be fun...

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, June 27, 2023

 Let's go on a camel ride. It will be fun...

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

Perhaps using a credit card stolen from his former landlord wasn’t the best decision for a 38-year-old Douglas man facing 72 felony charges related to allegations of sexual abuse of minors and child pornography.

That could be how law enforcement knew John Charles Smallbone, who is free from jail on his Wyoming charges after paying a $250,000 bond in cash, was in Colorado last week when he was picked up by law enforcement there on a fugitive warrant out of Converse County.

His former landlord reported to the Converse County Sheriff’s Office on July 20 that Smallbone was using his credit card without permission to run up a bill of more than $700 at a Fort Collins hotel, along with trying to order Uber rides with the same card.

Two days later on Wednesday, Larimer County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Smallbone.

 on his own recognizance before Wyoming authorities could come get him.

He couldn’t be held because the extradition paperwork, which Converse County Sheriff’s Office officials say was sent to Colorado in time, didn’t make it to the magistrate for the hearing.

Smallbone’s former landlord told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the first thought he had when his credit card texted him a fraud alert was that Smallbone was trying to flee his Wyoming charges.

“When that came through, I knew it was him,” the landlord said. “I texted him and asked, ‘Are you running?’ And he said he wasn’t running, that he was in town.”

That’s when Smallbone’s former landlord said he asked a follow-up question.

“I said, ‘If you’re in town, why does the credit card say you’re in Colorado?’ That’s when he ghosted me,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"About That Credit Card"}]

That text with Smallbone telling his former landlord he was in Douglas when he was actually about 175 miles away in Colorado was the only communication the landlord said he’s had with the man since he posted the $250,000 bond.

“Until then, I hadn’t seen or heard from him since he got out of jail,” the man said. “He’s not around here, I know that. I haven’t seen him.”

The former landlord said that Smallbone had access to the credit card through a deal made with him previously.

“He owed me a lot of back rent, so we made an agreement where he didn’t have to pay rent and could work, do some jobs,” he said.

That’s what the former landlord told Converse County authorities as well, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Lt. Benjamin Peech attached to a new charge of misdemeanor credit card fraud made available by the court Monday.

“About one year prior, (the landlord) entered into an arrangement with John C. Smallbone,” the affidavit says. “This agreement was that Smallbone would perform repairs around the trailer park and (the landlord) would provide Smallbone his residence rent-free.”

The credit card was supposed to be kept in a shop on the property and available in case Smallbone needed it to make repairs around the property, Peech wrote.

All other times before last week, Smallbone would call the landlord prior to making a purchase with the card, tell him what it was for and the cost.

The landlord told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that he didn’t know Smallbone had the card.

Peech also wrote that he followed up with a hotel in Fort Collins where the credit card was used, and an employee there looked at photos of Smallbone and confirmed he used the credit card at check-in to cover incidental charges.

The same card was used to book and pay for the room through Expedia, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"About That $250,000"}]

Smallbone’s former landlord emphasized that the two are not friends and only knew each other because the former was living in a trailer on the property when the latter bought it.

“He was there when I bought the property about 18 months ago,” he said. “I don’t know how long he was there overall, probably about 10 years or so, I guess.”

Like other people around Converse County he’s talked to, the landlord said he also “was totally shocked” when he learned someone walked into the Converse County Detention Center on June 24 with $250,000 cash to bond him out.

“That’s just wild,” he said. “I mean, they didn’t seem like the kind of people who have that kind of money lying around.”

It seems the Wyoming Public Defender’s Office in Converse County also would like an explanation.

Smallbone was appointed a public defender to represent him in facing the 72 felony charges because he claimed he couldn’t afford an attorney on his own, according to a motion the office filed with the court.

But after someone coughed up a quarter of a million in cash to get him out of jail, he doesn’t qualify, the motion says.

“The defendant had the ability to post two hundred fifty thousand ($250,000) dollars cash in bond,” says the motion to reconsider the court appointment. “The defendant stated on his application for court-appointed counsel he had no ability to borrow money for his legal defense.”

Smallbone also didn’t disclose on his application that he owned a business, nor list two boats as assets he could potentially sell to pay for his own lawyer, the motion says.

Finally, if Smallbone had access to that kind of money to get out of jail, he could have used that instead to hire private counsel to represent him, it says.

The public-facing court record doesn’t show a ruling on the motion to withdraw by the public defender’s office. A call to the office wasn’t returned by publication.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Will He Show Up?"}]

The $250,000 question now is will Smallbone show up for his arraignment in Converse County District Court on Tuesday afternoon?

A call to a phone number linked to Smallbone in his court file went to voicemail. A message left for him wasn’t returned by publication.

[{"type":"text","text":"His former landlord isn’t holding his breath."}]

“Yeah, I’d be pretty surprised if he was there, but I don’t know about that stuff,” he said, adding he’s also baffled about how he slipped through the Colorado court system.

“I don’t understand how that shit works, but that’s nuts,” he said. “When I first heard about (what he’s charged with) I was like, ‘That son of a bitch.’

“You would think the state of Colorado would want him off the streets, too. He needs to be locked up.”

The list of charges against Smallbone is long, including:

• 1 count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

• 36 counts of possessing child pornography.

• 16 counts of using a video camera to record intimate areas of another person without consent.

• 18 counts of knowingly manufacturing, generating, or creating child pornography.

• 1 count of possessing more than 3 ounces of marijuana (1.3 pounds).

The case against Smallbone exploded when forensic examinations were performed on his cellphone and electronic devices, according to an affidavit Peech wrote to support those charges.

On them, they found dozens of images and videos depicting prepubescent girls and boys performing a wide range of sex acts, the affidavit says.

Many of the videos appear to have been created by Smallbone in rooms and spaces that are identifiable and linked to alleged potential victims.

There also were videos of Smallbone having sex with an adult female, the affidavit says, adding that the woman told investigators she had no knowledge she was on camera.

The most disturbing allegations stem from a series of at least seven videos that the affidavit reports allegedly show a young girl having her pants pulled down and being subjected to having sex with a dog.

If convicted with maximum concurrent sentences, Smallbone could face up to 791 years in prison and fines of up to $710,000.

The most serious is the sexual abuse of a minor charge, which calls for a sentence of between 25 and 50 years.

Now he can add another potential six months in jail and up to $750 in fines if convicted of credit card fraud, a misdemeanor because the amount was less than $1,000.

If he fails to appear for his Tuesday arraignment hearing in Douglas, Smallbone will forfeit the $250,000 cash that was posted for him.

He’s also wanted on another $10,000 bond relating to the credit card fraud charge, and has a $50,000 signature bound in Colorado that will be forfeited if he fails to show up for his next court hearing there on Thursday.

John smallbone 7 27 26

<title>Stolen Credit Card Tracked Man Wanted On 72 Child Sex Abuse Charges To Colorado | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Charges on a stolen credit card tracked a Wyoming man wanted on 72 child sex abuse charges to Colorado last week. “If you’re in town, why does the credit card say you’re in Colorado?” the man who owns the card asked John Smallbone in a text.

Stolen Credit Card Tracked Man Wanted On 72 Child Sex Abuse Charges To Colorado

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Coal

For more than three decades, Jim Allington's workday began long before sunrise.

Most mornings, he pulled out of his driveway in Douglas around 3 a.m. for the 73-mile drive to Peabody Energy's North Antelope Rochelle Mine, where 16-hour shifts in upper management were routine.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I never missed a day,\" Allington said. \"Never been late.\""}]

By the time he retired a little more than a year ago, the long commute had taken its toll. During his final year on the job, he struck two elk while driving to work. Between the exhausting schedule and the mounting risks of the highway, he knew it was time.

He also believed he was leaving with one of the retirement benefits the company had promised: a Retiree Medical Allowance worth roughly $260,000 that could help pay health insurance premiums and medical expenses throughout retirement.

[{"type":"text","text":"But about two weeks ago, a letter arrived in the mail."}]

Peabody Energy notified retirees it will terminate the program at the end of 2026, ending a benefit many former employees say they relied on when planning retirement.

By the end of the year, Allington estimates he will have used about $20,000 of the $260,000 he said he was promised.

“Where did my other $240,000 go?” he posted on social media.

“They took away my benefits that they promised,” he told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why the RMA is Going Away"}]

Peabody Energy said in an emailed statement to Cowboy State Daily that it decided to discontinue the program because it "is not aligned with market-competitive practices."

"Peabody is providing advance notice to allow those affected time to plan and prepare, and we remain committed to supporting employees in their retirement planning," the company said.

The statement did not address Cowboy State Daily’s question about how many employees the decision will affect.

This isn’t the first time Peabody Energy has slashed benefits for its retirees.

In 2020, the company cut health benefits and terminated life insurance for retirees older than 65 as part of a cost-cutting strategy. Retirees younger than 65 could maintain their coverage.

[{"type":"text","text":"The move would help Peabody save about $175 million."}]

The company had declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016. While it pulled out of bankruptcy quickly, it was potentially headed toward a second bankruptcy in 2020, the company said at the time.

That’s when Gillette retirees Gloria and Rick Buell, who spent a combined 30 years working for Peabody Energy at several Wyoming coal mines, received their own letter in the mail, informing them their health benefits would be terminated at the end of the year.

Gloria Buell told Cowboy State Daily she and her husband did pretty well for the first six to nine months of retirement.

[{"type":"text","text":"“When we retired in 2017, we were promised this money,” she said."}]

She recalled a big meeting for employees where Peabody representatives talked about a big pot of money meant to cover health costs for company retirees.

“It would last you the rest of your life,” Gloria said she remembers hearing. “It was promised as part of your retirement.”

Retirees could select their own health insurance companies. They were responsible for paying their premiums every month, but Peabody was dependable at reimbursing them, Gloria said.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Buells fell into a predictable cycle."}]

“Every month when I would do my bills, I would pay our insurance and would send the receipt off to Peabody,” Gloria said. “They would cut me a check. It worked really well.”

[{"type":"text","text":"But the cycle didn’t last."}]

The Buells learned in 2020 the program was being discontinued for retirees over 65.

“All of a sudden we get a letter and it’s going away,” Gloria recalled. “And they did it so weird. They took it away from the seniors — the people who needed it most — and gave it to younger people. We were like, what the hell?”

Since then, the couple has paid for their own supplemental insurance and prescription drugs — expenses they weren’t counting on.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Fight"}]

Neither the Buells nor Allington have pushed back on the company for what they see as broken promises.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s all legal,” Allington said. “It in the fine print.”"}]

A clause in the RMA’s wording allows the company to legally cancel the program.

In Vincennes, Indiana, retired Peabody Energy workers protested after receiving letters like Allington’s.

Both Allington and Gloria Buell said they once considered Peabody one of the best companies in the coal industry.

They remember working long hours, building lifelong friendships and believing the company would keep the promises it made when employees retired.

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, they say, that trust has largely disappeared."}]

“The integrity of the company has gone to hell,” Allington said. “They don’t care about their employees like they used to. They keep taking and taking and taking. They promise you stuff. It all sounds good, and then they take it away.”

Gloria said, “It doesn’t ever surprise me what the coal mines do. It’s whatever saves them the most money.”

[{"type":"text","text":"A grandson of the Buells works for Peabody now."}]

Gloria said she hasn’t talked to him much about the retirement outlook at the company because retirement is not on his mind.

“He don’t think about retirement,” she said. “He’s too young.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Company Earnings"}]

Peabody Energy will announce its second-quarter earnings results with management in a conference call Wednesday. Its quarter one report fell short of investors’ expectations, with a net loss of $32.4 million for common stockholders.

Sales grew nearly 4% year over year, but costs outpaced that sales growth, according to the financial analysis platform Chartmill.

Antelope Rochelle Mine, about 65 miles south of Gillette, employs about 1,125 people, according to the Peabody Energy website. The mine produced 65 million tons of coal in 2025.

Peabody energy jim allington

<title>Retired Peabody Energy Employees Feel Betrayed By Cancellation Of Medical Benefits | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Retired Wyoming employees of Peabody Energy say they feel betrayed by its decision to end a medical retirement benefits program. "I never missed a day," said Douglas' Jim Allington. The company says the program no longer fits "market competitive practices."

Retired Peabody Energy Employees Feel Betrayed By Cancellation Of Medical Benefits

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

In the early 2000s, Zariah Whiteplume recalls how she would have to go to the "water hole" on the Navajo Reservation just so her family could wash dishes and have water to drink.

“I remember visiting my great-grandmother in New Mexico and we barely had any electricity,” Whiteplume said. “We had no running water, and it's so crazy that we used to go in an outhouse, and haul water.”

Whiteplume, 22, has known poverty all her life in two places: The Navajo and Wind River reservations. The experiences have led her on a quest to make life better for both her tribes, the Northern Arapaho and Diné (Navajo).

“I know there's still so many tribal members who live like that out on the reservation,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I feel like I came a long way but when you're young you don't really realize that you are poor. It’s just the way it is.”

Whiteplume wanted to change that, so she began 

lectrical engineering degree with a focus on renewable energy. 

Members of her Diné family attended United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota, and persuaded her to visit. 

discovered her love for math was a strong asse

as recruited to the engineering program. 

[{"type":"text","text":"This past spring, she graduated with her pre-engineering degree."}]

“It's a very demanding degree, but I'm also proud to say that I'm one of a few of the young women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math),” Whiteplume said. “United Tribes brought me opportunities I thought I would never have.”

Thanks to her Diné connections, Whiteplume was able to intern at the Los Alamos Nationa

o summers. This year, she transferred to the Sandia National Laboratori

“I want to come back to my community and engage with the youth,” she said. “We need to introduce more of our kids at earlier ages to the sciences but also incorporate our cultural ways.”

Whiteplume said she hopes to build a bridge between h

This process is called Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or TEK, and can be used to ensure proposed renewable energy fits community priorities, respects culturally significant places, and meets local needs rather than imposing outside solutions.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Sharing Her Culture"}]

As she pursues her education and dreams of a future sharing her passion of math and science to children on the reservations, Whiteplume is also staying in touch with her cultural identity through hoop dancing.

She has performed before various audiences, including

“The elementary kids from around the Bismarck school districts get most excited whenever I come out,” Whiteplume said. “That means a lot to me.”

Whiteplume was 8 when she first began learning to hoop dance with Jasmine Bell and her team of young girls on the Wind River Reservation. Over the years, she has had numerous mentors. In middle school, her teacher was Ann Abeyta in Fort Washakie. 

“Hoop dancing is a healing dance and people enjoy watching because of how skilled you have to be to do the dance,” Whiteplume said. “When I dance, I pick up the hoops with my feet and I don't ever bend down to pick up the hoops off the ground.”

Whiteplume said what makes the dance so special is telling her own story. Each year, she adds a hoop; she 

“I always get nervous before I dance and my parents always remind me that when I dance I'm not only healing myself but I'm healing everybody else around me and to keep my family members in mind,” she said.

Whiteplume said she makes a purposeful effort to always have positive vibes when dancing. Once she begins, rather than concern herself with the technical aspects, she pays attention to the drum group and its music while keeping her thoughts centered on family.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It just flows naturally,” she said."}]

Whiteplume spent her early years dancing around Lander and the Wind River Reservation. After she graduated, she said it was heartwarming to hear from locals who said they had watched her grow up through her hoop dancing.

When Whiteplume was in high school, she was asked to hoop dance for the opening of a show.  Red Berry Woman, a contemporary fashion design company owned by a Hidatsa Sioux. Assiniboine and Crow woman named 

, then asked her to model in the show, leading to another opportunity to showcase her heritage with others.

“Indigenous designers are telling their story and representing their own tribes in their art,” Whiteplume said. “They will use geometrics and florals and just intricate designs that they create themselves, which I think is beautiful.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cultural Exchange"}]

Whiteplume said that the biggest performance of her life came when she hoop danced in June in Tokyo. She was invited to perform at an all-Indigenous international fashion show.

Whiteplume performed and modeled as part of the Cultural Enrichment Segment for Hitechmoda Productions, a fashion show for Indigenous designers to showcase their art. She was invited to dance specifically by “Ally’s Ribbons,” a designer from the First Nations in Canada who specializes in ribbon designs.

Because Whiteplume didn’t dance until the second segment of the show, she was also able to model for C. Lysias Designs of the First Nations of Canada in the first segment. She described the outfit as a beautiful leather skirt paired with a Pendleton heart neckline top.

“It was cool to see a mixture between Japanese designers and our Native designers,” Whiteplume said, explaining that geishas and other Japanese-themed artists were also featured alongside the Native artists.

Whiteplume said one of her most memorable experiences wasn’t at the show itself but came afterward when she visited an otter café and was able to have an experience that tied her back to the pow wows of her childhood.

“One of our pieces of regalia that we dance with as Native people are otters,” Whiteplume said. “I always wanted to interact with a live otter, and it was so special to be able to pet and feed some of these creatures.”

Whiteplume said she will continue to hoop dance and model to keep in touch with her cultural identity and share it with others. She has been invited to be the head lady dancer at the Fremont County Fair on July 27.

But her main passion is showing kids on the reservation that it is cool to be a young woman in STEM and to use her engineering skills to better their lives by introducing renewable resources in a culturally sensitive way. 

"Engineering is a lot of hands-on work and solving problems using math," Whiteplume said. "I am still in a bit of shock when I realize that I'm doing it. I'm going to be an engineer."

Contact Jackie Dorothy at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com

Zariah Whiteplume 3 Zariah in Tokyo 7 26 26

<title>Wyoming People: International Model Grew Up On Reservations Without Running Water | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Zariah Whiteplume grew up without running water or much electricity on the Wind River and Navajo reservations. This summer, she was hoop dancing and modeling in Tokyo. “I want to come back to my community and engage with the youth,” she said.

Wyoming People: International Model Grew Up On Reservations Without Running Water

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

Andrew Rossi

Around Wyoming

Anyone who turns off Wyoming Highway 120 toward Clark will find a paved two-lane road heading all the way to the mouth of the Clarks Fork Canyon. The road extends for 8 miles through some of the most riveting scenery in northwest Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then it abruptly ends."}]

The pavement comes to a stop at a bumpy dirt parking lot. The only way to go any farther is by foot, on horseback, or in a sturdy off-road vehicle.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s officially County Road 8VC. Many locals know it as Canyon Road."}]

It’s also known as “The Road to Nowhere,” “Webster’s Folly,” and “The Road of Death.”

One thing it isn’t is a highway connecting northwest Wyoming to Cooke City, Montana, which is all it was intended to be.

Why the road was never completed is a complicated legacy of the forever unfinished Clarks Fork Road.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It doesn't have a good history,” Cody historian Bob Richard said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Crucial Connection"}]

It was 1962, and the Wyoming Highway Department (WHD) wanted a road to connect Cody and Cooke City, which would become Wyoming Highway 296. That would give local and tourist traffic access to the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

[{"type":"text","text":"Constant Edward “Bud” Webster had a bold vision."}]

Webster was an influential rancher and car dealer from Meeteetse. He ran Cody’s Chevrolet dealership for 65 years, longer than any other individual in the nation to that point.

[{"type":"text","text":"“He was a leader in our community,” Richard said."}]

Webster wanted the new road to run along the bottom of the Clarks Fork Canyon, following the original North Route to Cooke City through the Absaroka Range.

“It was his favorite project,” Richard said. “Bud was the chairman of the Wyoming Highway Department at the time, and it was his idea to put a road up through the canyon. He developed it.”

Webster was so eager and influential that the Clarks Fork Road began construction. 

[{"type":"text","text":"It would never be finished."}]

By 1969, 8 miles of the Clarks Fork Road had been laid out, leveled and paved up to the mouth of the Clarks Fork Canyon.

At the same time, 37 miles away, construction was underway at the west end of the route. A junction was built at U.S. Highway 212, following the south bank of the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River into Sunlight Basin.

That’s when the controversy started to blow, much like the wind in the canyon.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Canyon Vs. Summit"}]

Even when construction began on either end of Wyoming Highway 296, there was controversy about where the middle should go. Should it follow the Clarks Fork through the canyon, or head up and over 8,060-foot Dead Indian Summit?

In an attempt to connect Cody and Cooke City, the Wyoming Department of Transportation built 8 miles of road in 1969 and then stopped. The "Road To Nowhere" became known as "The Road of Death" after a car with 5 people drove through the road's end.

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, June 27, 2023

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