One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"Just park your car outside my place. It should be fine...."}]

One more for 4 30 24

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

<title>One More For The Road: Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Just park your car outside my place. It should be fine....

One More For The Road: Tuesday, April 30, 2024

 Just park your car outside my place. It should be fine....

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

 to bring a 12-year-old Oklahoma girl back to Wyoming has pleaded no-contest to three felony charges, ending the criminal case short of trial and leaving prosecutors free to seek the maximum possible sentence.

Christopher Steven Gravenmier, 31, entered no-contest pleas Wednesday in Lincoln County District Court to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and one count of kidnapping.

Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred and Deputy Lincoln County Attorney Ember Oakley prosecuted the case.

Rather than agreeing to a negotiated prison term, the plea leaves sentencing open, allowing both sides to argue for the punishment they believe is appropriate.

"We're really pleased with this because we can argue up to the maximum," Oakley told Cowboy State Daily. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Sentencing is scheduled for July 29."}]

If the court orders the sentences to run consecutively, Gravenmier faces mandatory prison terms of 25 to 50 years on each of the two first-degree sexual abuse convictions, along with up to 20 years on the kidnapping conviction — a combined maximum of 120 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","text":"No-Contest Plea "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Several other felony counts were dismissed as part of the plea agreement."}]

Although a no-contest plea differs procedurally from a guilty plea, it has the same legal effect in a criminal case.

"'No-contest' is legally the same as a guilty plea," Allred said. "No-contest pleas basically mean the defendant does not contest the charges against him, but it acts the exact same way as a guilty plea. He's still convicted of those counts. It's procedural. He says, 'I don't contest those charges,' but it acts the same way as a guilty plea."

By entering the plea, Gravenmier gave up his constitutional right to a trial, and the case now moves directly to sentencing.

[{"type":"text","text":"Taken From Home"}]

 April 22 when the girl, who had been reported missing from Oklahoma days earlier, called her grandmother from a Wyoming gas station and said she had been abducted.

Investigators initially encountered Gravenmier after the girl said she had borrowed his cellphone. But once she was safe, authorities say she identified him as the man who had brought her to Wyoming.

The girl told investigators she had communicated with Gravenmier for months on Snapchat before he drove from Kemmerer to Oklahoma. She alleged he told her he knew where she lived, prompting her to leave home with him because she feared what might happen if she refused.

Prosecutors allege Gravenmier drove the girl back to Wyoming, where he sexually abused her during the trip and after arriving in Kemmerer. Charging documents also allege he threatened her, attempted to prevent anyone from tracking her cellphone and warned her not to report what had happened.

Gravenmier was arrested later that day and charged with multiple felony counts. Several of those charges were dismissed as part of Wednesday's plea agreement.

[{"type":"text","text":"Police Station"}]

At the police station, Gravenmier admitted to investigators that he had driven to Oklahoma and picked up the girl several days earlier.

The affidavit says agents noticed that he became "very emotional" during questioning and appeared nervous, grabbing at his shirt, wiping his face and developing a noticeably dry mouth.

[{"type":"text","text":"After requesting an attorney, the interview ended."}]

While investigators obtained search warrants for his home and vehicle, Gravenmier remained at the police station.

The affidavit states he was crying, slumped over in his chair and told agents he was "really sorry for what happened."

Gravenmeier and Lincoln County courthouse 4 30 26 1

<title>Wyoming Man Accused Of Kidnapping, Assaulting 12-Year-Old Oklahoma Girl Pleads No Contest | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Kemmerer man accused of driving 16 hours to Oklahoma to bring a 12-year-old girl back to Wyoming pleaded no-contest to kidnapping and two sex abuse charges and now faces up to 120 years in jail. The affidavit said he told police he was "really sorry."

Wyoming Man Accused Of Kidnapping, Assaulting 12-Year-Old Oklahoma Girl Pleads No Contest

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

Clair McFarland

Politics

 to a DUI charge and was fined and sentenced to probation issued a public apology Friday. 

Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, was arrested Dec. 28 in Buffalo on suspicion of driving drunk from at least an interstate outlet intersection to the Miller's Travel Center gas station. 

More than seven months of a highly publicized, hotly contested case followed. He pleaded guilty Wednesday in Buffalo Circuit Court and was sentenced to pay a $500 fine and spend a year on unsupervised probation.

[{"type":"text","text":"If he fails probation, 88 days of jail time could follow."}]

“I would like everyone to know that I do owe you an apology for my offenses,” began Allemand in a public video posted Friday to Facebook. “I would like you to know also that throughout the duration of these proceedings and under the advisement of my legal representation, I was told to offer no apologies, that could affect the case that I was contesting.”

Allemand continued: “I do apologize for drinking while driving on a public road. I do acknowledge my actions could have been much worse, with much consequences.”

He said he’s never denied “that it was illegal and was honest up front.” 

Just after the legislative session ended in March, he said, he entered a counseling program without anyone ordering or pressuring him to do so. He completed that program and continues counseling, and hasn’t consumed alcohol since his arrest, said Allemand.

Allemand said he fought the charge because “I do not believe that the amount of beer consumed (had me) nearly as intoxicated as reported.”

Case prosecutor and Johnson County Deputy Attorney Josh Stensaas reported Allemand at a 0.24% blood-alcohol concentration. Allemand’s attorney, Mike Vang contested that finding during that case, and the BAC dispute wasn’t resolved by the time the case settled.

 “As the case developed, I felt I was not being given a fair opportunity to use the legal system to defend myself,” said Allemand. “There are many details that you weren’t all privileged to know and only chosen information was published by the media.”

Contacted by phone Friday, Allemand clarified to Cowboy State Daily that he was referencing details the media didn’t know. 

[{"type":"text","text":"These may surface later, he added. "}]

He declined to comment beyond that and beyond the statements in his apology video.

“I ultimately made the decision to plead guilty because I was wrong for drinking and driving,” he said in the video. “It also seemed to be a major consensus that I couldn’t ignore.”

He said he hopes his decision doesn’t impact others’ ability to exercise their rights under the system. He also said he’s served the  people with fidelity and will continue to do so.

Allemand faces a Republican opponent, Bar Nunn Mayor Peter Boyer, at the Aug. 18 primary election. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Grateful He Apologized"}]

Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, had called for Allemand to apologize about one hour before Allemand’s apology video published.

“The silence is deafening from not only Rep. Allemand on his guilty plea but also from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus,” said Brown in a Friday Facebook post to his political page. “Accountability for his actions should be demanded by every single member of our body.”

Allemand is a member of the populist-leaning Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which is a controversial group of House Republicans that Brown often opposes.

Its proponents cast it as the true voice of Wyoming conservatives. Its foes accuse it of groupthink and sloppy legislating.

Brown told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday interview after Allemand’s apology that he’s “incredibly grateful that he did apologize.”

[{"type":"text","text":"That shows accountability, said Brown."}]

“I am a little disturbed that he still continues to push back against the judicial system, and it seems to be that is a growing concern from the Freedom Caucus in general; that they have little to no faith in the judicial system,” he said. “And it undermines our ability as a nation to believe in one of our three branches of government.”

The Freedom Caucus has not called outright for the election of judges. Its members have criticized multiple judicial rulings in recent months, including a Jan. 6 ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court, proclaiming abortion access a fundamental health care right throughout Wyoming.

Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Rachel Williams, R-Cody, who is also campaigning for secretary of state, did not immediately respond to a Friday text message request for a response to Brown’s statements.  

Brown said now that Allemand has taken accountability, he hopes people show him grace.

“Because none of us are infallible, and I believe we all deserve grace when we take accountability,” said Brown.

Brown had, in his Facebook post, referenced having been in the public eye, made mistakes, and taken accountability himself.

Brown had given a favorable testimony in at the 2024 sentencing hearing of a former law enforcement officer who was convicted of sexual assault. He had described the former Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, Gabriel Testerman, as a good candidate for probation.

, and said he supports the judicial process and the outcome in this case.

The prosecutor in Testerman’s case, Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe, had told the court at sentencing that, “There are two Gabe Testermans” – meaning one society at large and another of dark behaviors.

[{"type":"text","text":"More About Allemand’s Case"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Allemand spent about two days in jail after his Dec. 28 arrest."}]

Through his attorney, Allemand asserted that the arresting deputy, Johnson County Sheriff’s Deputy Caleb Campbell, didn’t have enough evidence of wrongdoing to make the initial stop.

Campbell contacted Allemand at the gas station parking lot, citing a claim that Allemand had made a stop at a stop sign, but then lurched forward improperly and almost hit another vehicle.

Allemand also contested Campbell’s decision to ask him incriminating questions while Campbell had him handcuffed – reportedly for officer safety reasons due to the sighting of Allemand’s gun – during the stop. 

Buffalo Circuit Court Magistrate Jeremy Kisling ruled that Campbell had enough evidence to make the stop, but should not have asked potentially incriminating questions during Allemand’s 12-minute confinement in handcuffs on scene. So the Johnson County Attorney’s Office couldn’t bring the 12 minutes of body camera video to the trial – which is now cancelled – as part of its main case.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office released the body camera video to the media, however, which Allemand’s attorney called inappropriate. That's another dispute left unsettled by the case's conclusion. 

Allemand apology 7 17 26

<title>Rep. Allemand Issues Public Apology For Drunk Driving | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Rep. Bill Allemand issued a public apology Friday for driving drunk last December. The state legislator pleaded guilty Wednesday to a DUI charge and was fined and sentenced to probation. “I do apologize for drinking while driving on a public road," he said.

Rep. Allemand Issues Public Apology For Drunk Driving

Wyoming Life

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when the RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing.

The frightening descent was captured on video (without audio) by Jeff Bernhard, who was traveling from Victor, Idaho, to Jackson when the motorhome suddenly came flying up behind his vehicle in the oncoming lane.

"My driver's exact words were, 'Oh, shit, here it goes again,'" Bernhard told Cowboy State Daily. "It was kind of surreal."

Watching through his phone, Bernhard feared he was witnessing another deadly crash.

"It was hard to film, honestly," he said. "I had an eerie feeling that I've had a few other times where it feels like someone's about to die. I'm just so grateful that's not how this turned out."

The video shows the motorhome racing downhill, passing slower traffic while the driver appears focused entirely on keeping the vehicle on the roadway.

[{"type":"text","text":"Remarkably, everyone walked away unharmed."}]

Bernhard said the motorhome continued through Wilson, crossed the bridge into Jackson and eventually pulled safely off the road. Later that day, he saw what appeared to be the same motorhome traveling south of Jackson.

"I was concerned after we left that maybe his brakes caught on fire or something," he said. "But that doesn't appear to be the case."

Cowboy State Daily has asked the Wyoming Highway Patrol whether troopers responded to the incident, whether the driver suffered a mechanical failure and whether the agency is investigating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still Fresh In Drivers' Minds"}]

Bernhard's reaction reflects what had happened on the same stretch of highway about a week earlier.

On July 7, a dump truck hauling asphalt descended Teton Pass after losing its brakes. 

 the truck crossed into oncoming traffic, struck five vehicles — including two pickup trucks, a motorcycle and a Subaru — before overturning.

The crash killed Nicholas Besobrasow, 66, of Idaho, and David Page, 57, of California. Four other people were injured.

Survivor Caleb Batista told Cowboy State Daily he 

 thrown off the mountainside after the truck hit his motorcycle.

Another witness, Dumitru Cebotari, described seeing smoke pouring from the truck while its engine screamed down the grade, realizing almost immediately the driver could not stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"For Bernhard, Wednesday's video looked frighteningly familiar."}]

"That was where his mind went — and mine too" he said, in reference to the earlier tragedy. 

[{"type":"text","text":"A Mountain That Demands Respect"}]

Drivers who regularly travel Teton Pass often describe it with two seemingly contradictory words: beautiful and intimidating.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bernhard is one of them."}]

"It's a beautiful area," he said. "But driving and towing especially can be really consequential."

The pass carries thousands of commuters between Victor and Jackson, along with commercial trucks, RVs, motorcycles and tourists unfamiliar with steep mountain driving. Its long downhill grade and tight switchbacks leave little margin for mechanical problems.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bill Sniffin knows that firsthand."}]

A veteran motorhome owner with more than 50,000 miles behind the wheel of RVs and the author of numerous columns about driving them, Sniffin said he immediately recognized the danger when he watched Bernhard's video.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I've had that experience,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Even experienced drivers, he said, don't take Teton Pass lightly."}]

"I've gone down Teton Pass before, and it is scary to death," Sniffin said. "In my case, I'm driving a 32,000-pound rig and towing a car, and the traffic is terrible, and the hairpin turns. You're literally white-knuckle. Your life is passing before your eyes."

[{"type":"text","text":"When Brakes Aren't Enough"}]

Sniffin said many larger diesel motorhomes are equipped with what's known as a Jake brake — an engine braking system that slows heavy vehicles on long descents without relying heavily on conventional brakes.

Smaller motorhomes often don't have that equipment because of the added expense, forcing drivers to depend much more on their service brakes.

"I used to have a smaller rig that didn't have Jake brakes," Sniffin said. "It was terrifying because you could start smelling your brakes when you came down a pass. When that happened, you knew you were borderline. You had to stop and let them cool down, and if there was no place to stop, you were in trouble."

Sniffin emphasized he has no way of knowing what happened to the motorhome in Wednesday's video.

But he said long mountain descents have a way of exposing problems that may never reveal themselves on flatter highways.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's very lucky that there wasn't a horrible collision,\" he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Another Reminder"}]

Whether the motorhome suffered brake failure or another mechanical problem remains unknown.

But for commuters who travel Teton Pass every day, Wednesday's close call served as another reminder of how quickly a routine drive can become an emergency.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It demands more respect than what most people give it,\" Bernhard said."}]

"You've got to think twice. Unfortunately, you've got to kind of know how scary it is. Otherwise, people just sort of hope for the best."

[{"type":"text","text":"On Teton Pass, that difference can come down to only a few seconds."}]

Teton pass video 7 17 26

<title>Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A routine drive over Teton Pass turned into a white-knuckle spectacle Wednesday when an RV appeared to lose its brakes and barreled downhill, weaving through traffic before somehow reaching the bottom without crashing. One motorist captured the video.

Holy Cow: Motorhome Appears To Lose Brakes On Teton Pass, Motorist Captures Video

Government & Politics

Wyoming legislators say they’re working on a groundbreaking bill to give Wyomingites property rights over their own personal data — and another 

bill to restrict license plate reader data usage

The vow intersects with rising concerns about license plate reader cameras like Flock, Motorola and other brands operating in some Wyoming communities. 

It also follows eight years of a tech-oriented legislative committee’s work to safeguard people’s personal data from being indiscriminately sold on internet channels.

Both bills are set for a more thorough hearing at the University of Wyoming during the Sept. 28-29 meeting of the Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology.

If it passes, the data privacy bill would be “the first of its kind in the world,” Committee Co-Chair Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, told his colleagues during a Wednesday meeting in Casper.

“There’s nothing even close. It would be far and away the strongest privacy right on the planet,” said Rothfuss. “I’d love to be the state that does it, if we can get there.”

But Rothfuss warned the other lawmakers to prepare for immense backlash from the tech private sector.  

“If we implement it, candidly, it will make a lot of companies mad,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Data Would Be Your Property"}]

None of that fury descended on the public comment segment of Wednesday’s meeting. Rather, a few proponents offered suggestions and feedback.

That’s because this was only the unveiling of the bill, said Rothfuss in a Thursday phone interview. 

He said he’s spent significant time this year tuning the bill, titled the Wyoming Personal Data Ownership Act, to account for property-rights scenarios across the legal spectrum.

It’s unique because rather than codify consumer protections pertaining to social media or other vendors’ products, it proclaims that a person’s data is his or her own property, said Rothfuss. 

That means the government’s request to use someone’s data would function like an easement; a private company would have to get permission to borrow it.

“Unauthorized processing or possession of personal data is an interference with the data owner’s exclusive rights and a concrete and particularized injury,” says the bill draft. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Those breaches resemble trespass or conversion, the draft adds."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Some Carveouts"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The bill contains carveouts as well."}]

For example, a media outlet could still use a photograph of someone in reporting. People can use available data in communication, commentary, criticism, analysis, scholarship, indexing, discovery, preservation, or creating expressive work, under the bill. 

But none of those uses could involve “commercial exploitation” of individualized information.

Sensitive data would fall under a more stringent category than personal data. Some of that, like genetic and neural data, and personal data for kids under 13, would be barred from use as a “commercial instrument.”

People’s biometric identifiers and precise geolocation couldn’t be used without affirmative consent, and then for no more than one year. The government would have to get a warrant on probable cause to access those.

People’s data on personal health, religious beliefs, political affiliation, financial accounts and any personal data of teens would require affirmative consent and be capped at a year’s use as well. But the government would only need a “court order on judicial review” for access.

All other personal data could be used for up to two years but not retained for more than three years, and could be pulled into the legal process through a subpoena.

People could demand companies delete their data “at any time” if this bill passed. 

If an active access authority or a law precluded that, the entity using the data would have to let the person know within 30 days of the demand for deletion.

The committee’s co-chair from the state House side, Republican Rep. Daniel Singh of Cheyenne, told Rothfuss on Wednesday that he supports the groundbreaking bill.

[{"type":"text","text":"Next Up, License Plate Readers"}]

Singh presented a bill that sought to restrict license plate reader usage as well as biometric and geolocation data usage.

Under the bill as drafted Wednesday, law enforcement agencies could only access biometric or geolocation data for investigating violent felonies, upon probable cause; helping to find a missing or endangered person; or helping to identify a person believed to be dead. 

[{"type":"text","text":"All those causes would still require a warrant."}]

Law enforcement agency representatives opposed the bill vocally, with most lamenting that all those topics were lumped into one bill.

[{"type":"text","text":"Singh acknowledged the bill is broad."}]

“I think we’re actually holding in our hand, like, four or five different bills,” he said. “We may need to divide and conquer.”

Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, suggested tackling the license plate reader controversies this year, and addressing the biometric data part until a later session cycle.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rothfuss agreed."}]

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox had listed numerous active, and some mandated, uses for biometric data. 

Law enforcement agencies take fingerprints and palm prints when registering sex offenders. Fingerprints are part of background checks for numerous entities, including those bringing in volunteers or employees to work with kids.

Cox noted that in disaster scenarios like floods and tornadoes, law enforcement wouldn’t be able to get a warrant to identify a decedent as the bill contemplates, because those aren’t crime scenes.

Sheridan Police Chief Travis Koltiska said that a lot of crimes not classed as violent felonies are still considered public safety risks, like stalking, domestic violence, protection order violations fraud and identity theft.

Cox referenced child pornography crimes as well, which, though “horrific,” aren’t classed as violent felonies.

Devon Brubaker, director at Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport, said airports will use license plate readers — but not tap them into the larger LPR networks lately causing concern — for parking verification uses. 

They’re also trending toward using biometric data, and may need to use it to comply with U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal safety requirements, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"What Are Private Companies Doing?"}]

Rothfuss told law enforcement agency representatives that his key concern is what private companies are doing with the license plate reader location data that they gather for law enforcement.

“Your mission is to serve and protect. Their mission is to make money off data,” he said. “And there’s our challenge.”

Allen Thompson, director of the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, quipped that “might be why some of them are offering a very cheap service to law enforcement.”

Rothfuss parried: “You’re either the customer or you’re the product.”

James Halverson, deputy state director for Americans for Prosperity, acknowledged that the bill needs work, but said his group is in favor of the concept.

Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, worried aloud that the Legislature could run afoul of constitutional provisions by restricting private companies’ data-gathering ability altogether. 

This fell under the context of location points and vehicle images shot by license plate reader cameras. Crago gave the example of trying to stop a person sitting with a camera, filming activity on a public highway.

“We can limit the government from contracting with those third parties, but I question, can we constitutionally limit the third party from recording the data, keeping the data — and if so, what does that look like?” asked Crago.

Rothfuss referenced the property rights bill he presented at that meeting, saying that could be a “hook” to protecting data, “but it takes a couple of interesting steps.”

Chris Rothfuss 7 16 26

<title>Groundbreaking Bill Would Give Wyoming Residents Property Rights Over Their Data | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming legislators are working on a bill to give Wyomingites property rights over their own personal data — and another to restrict license plate reader usage. "It would be far and away the strongest privacy right on the planet,” said a lawmaker.

Groundbreaking Bill Would Give Wyoming Residents Property Rights Over Their Data

Courts

Federal authorities say illegal Glock "switches" have become one of the fastest-growing firearm threats in America, with recoveries of the tiny machine gun conversion devices soaring 784% nationwide in the last four years.

That national trend came into sharp focus not far beyond Wyoming’s eastern border this week when a monthslong western Nebraska investigation ended with seven arrests.

Investigators allegedly found Instagram photos and videos showing young men posing with — and in one case firing — Glock-style pistols equipped with the illegal devices, which modify semiautomatic handguns into fully automatic machine guns. 

The investigation culminated Wednesday morning when SWAT teams and dozens of officers served search and arrest warrants across Scottsbluff, Gering and Bayard, Nebraska. By the end of the operation, seven people — two adults and five juveniles — were in custody.

Seven teens were arrested Wednesday in a sweeping western Nebraska raid over illegal machine guns and drugs. Investigators say they found Instagram posts of the teens posing with and firing Glock-style guns equipped with illegal switches.

One More For The Road: Tuesday, April 30, 2024

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