Laramie County Investigates 'Threatening' Emails Over Denied Fireworks Permits

Threatening emails to two Laramie County commissioners from a fireworks company along the Colorado-Wyoming border, denied permits to stay open, are the last straw in an escalating feud for one Laramie County commissioner.

“I do not believe that a permit should be granted as long as Mr. (Pete) Elliott is involved in the business operations of Jurassic Fireworks or Artillery World,” Commissioner Gunnar Malm told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

“Permits are not a right; they are a privilege, and despite five years of attempts to work with the applicant, every year is a new issue or a new complaint," Malm said. "The threats after the last denial were the final straw for me in regard to my patience.”

That represents a change for Malm, who had previously voted in favor of the fireworks outlets being permitted, with the idea that stipulations could be added to the permit to address some of what commissioners have described as “obnoxious” marketing or “guerrilla advertising.”

Malm said that the threatening emails were sent to Laramie County Commission Chairman Brian Lovett and Commissioner Troy Thompson from owner Breanna Elliott’s father, Pete, who Malm said also sometimes goes by the name Frank or even Mike.

The content of the emails has not been revealed, but they are now the subject of a criminal investigation through the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department, Malm said.

Charges Of Discrimination

Pete Eliott told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday night, after commissioners denied an appeal over pulling the permits, that his attorneys have advised him not to talk about the case anymore now that it appears headed to the courts in one fashion or another.

“All I can say is, it’s a sad day to be an entrepreneur from Colorado, but the sun still shines,” he said.

The sun, he added, refers to justice, when he believes more of the story will come out, proving his allegations of discrimination and civil rights abuses.

Malm told Cowboy State Daily he believes any claims of discrimination are completely non-credible. The allegations were discussed during Tuesday afternoon’s commission meeting, which included an agenda item to reconsider Laramie County’s denial of permits for Jurassic Fireworks and Artillery World.

“No applicant I am aware of is from Wyoming,” Malm said. “The discrimination claims are baseless.”

Malm also suggested that the idea the unusual business tactics are necessary for competition are ridiculous.

Those sales tactics have included what commissioners described as “obnoxious” behavior directly calling out a competitor, Phantom Fireworks.

Constant Siege

During the commission meeting, Phantom store manager Petra Goldberg described a state of constant siege against Phantom Fireworks, a siege that she said has been documenting.

“We’ve had our price tags removed and thrown out in the parking lot,” she said. “We have had products damaged.”

People have had to be removed from the showroom, who Goldberg said came to disrupt the store’s business.

“One young man that we did escort out, he would not tell us, he just said that he was hired to come in and do this,” Goldberg said.

Goldberg said she’s had teenage employees quit and not return because their parents are concerned for their safety.

“I have worked for Phantom for 10 years,” she said. “And for the past five years I’ve endured constant bombardment with the bullhorn situation.”

That bombardment has included her own name being called out, Goldberg said, asking her if she enjoys working for liars and thieves.

Last June when Cowboy State Daily visited the Colorado border fireworks outlets, a continuous message was playing over a loudspeaker that accused Phantom Fireworks of being “liars, thieves and crooks!”

Malm told Cowboy State Daily he feels such tactics are uncalled for.

“I understand any business is competitive and requires marketing efforts,” Malm said. But “none of the issues that began five years ago when the applicant entered the market existed prior to their opening in Laramie County.”

False Allegations

Criminal defense attorney Dion Custis, who is representing Pete Eliott, disputed some of the claims Goldberg presented and said that Jurassic Fireworks and Artillery World have addressed all concerns that have been brought to their attention.

“I strongly believe what is occurring is mainly a lack of communication of what is allowed and what is not,” he said. “Some of these I have just heard from this lady from Phantom I’ve never heard of, and I think that’s the problem.”

Custis also suggested that some of the allegations made by Phantom are false.

“They’ve accused Jurassic and its employees of assault on people and all kinds of different things,” Custis said. “And so, I’ve obviously not been able to get to the bottom of that because we have not had any type of hearing on these things or any type of validation of these complaints.”

Custis also said his clients have been told by the sheriff’s office that they can use the bullhorn, while the county is saying the business can’t.

That’s led to confusion, Custis suggested, about what the business is really allowed to do.

“It can’t be that he’s told by law enforcement that he is acting under the law in these situations, certain situations, and then be denied a permit because he thought he was acting under the law and what’s allowable,” Custis said. “And this is where I think the miscommunication is occurring. And it can be clarified, it can be done, it can be rectified, if we have a very strict or have notice as to what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable.”

Fire Warden Speaks

Laramie County Fire Warden Matthew Butler told county commissioners that he has received general complaints about the use of the bullhorn. Other complaints have suggested that people are standing in the middle of the street trying to flag customers down or standing up on top of a tractor trailer piled with hay bales using a bullhorn to try and gain attention.

“I look at this from the safety aspect point of view,” he said. “If this is distracting to the customers who are trying to enter any one of these facilities, does that driver get distracted and potentially rear-end or hit another vehicle or could it have the opportunity to run into somebody trying to jump across the road to another facility?”

Butler added that he’s reached out to a number of facilities and partners in the area and what they’ve told him is they just don’t want to be “in the middle of all this.”

Some of them have offered to come and speak about their experiences, Butler said.

“This is just to highlight some of the complaints and concerns that the neighboring community as well as the people that I have heard from have on these facilities,” he said. “I would stand for any questions.”

Fireworks Businesses Help County

Breanna Elliott, who is the actual applicant for the fireworks permits, attended the hearing in person to highlight the hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales by her fireworks businesses at the Colorado-Wyoming border.

“We are willing to discuss any issue that arises and request this opportunity,” she said. “While there are allegations in the past year, we received no citations and were advised that we were operating appropriately. This is important as the sheriff’s office has confirmed that we are acting within the confines of the law.”

Other reviews by entities such as the fire warden have all indicated everything is in order for the application, Breanna Elliott added.

“As there were no adverse public comment, and we have complied with the application process, I request that our applications be approved,” she said.

The applications alone have cost Breanna Elliott $11,000, she said, and the businesses are already committed to millions of dollars worth of fireworks for the year.

“There’s no refund policy,” she told commissioners. “This is one of the reasons I submitted the applications in February.”

County Not Buying It

Commissioners, however, were not buying the Elliotts’ argument.

“My concern is what I perceive as threats to my colleagues,” Commissioner Malm told them. “I voted to grant the license to a couple of the operations the first time and had intended to maybe put some strings on that to try and address some things. But when somebody threatens, in my opinion, elected officials for doing their job, I take real offense to that.’

Malm praised Brianna Elliott for being present at the hearing.

“She is truly the applicant,” he said. “And this is the first time we’ve seen or heard from her. We often hear from her father. We often see him in the press. But he’s not the applicant. He is not who is responsible for these things.”

Commissioner Buck Holmes, meanwhile, told the Elliotts that he has personally been to the area to look things over and see what has been happening there.

“I did not attempt to intimidate them, was never on their property,” he said. “Nothing of that sort. I just looked things over and was leaving and they attempted to intimidate me, which I did not appreciate.”

Commissioner Linda Heath pulled out her “mom’s hat” and told the Elliotts the last thing she’d want her children doing is working somewhere that they are going to learn “unethical business practices.”

“If indeed bullhorns are being used, and they’re obnoxious to the neighboring businesses, if indeed some of the other complaints that we have heard are true, I wouldn’t want my young son or daughter working for Jurassic or Artillery World,” she said. “Safety is a concern. These are teenagers for the most part that are working out there.”

Commissioner Troy Thompson said for him it’s not about obnoxious marketing, but safety.

“When I hear about an old firetruck going up and down the road with lights and sirens, that’s dangerous,” he said. “These are dangerous situations.”

That includes the situation Thompson said he heard about where someone was on top of a tractor-trailer 18 to 20 foot in the air with a herd of buffalo nearby.

“And the landowner is saying, ‘Please, somebody’s gonna get hurt,’” Thompson said. “And the applicant and his attorney said, ‘No, don’t worry about it. We have text messages saying you can stay on there,’ and sends them back up and has to have a threat from a sheriff’s deputy to say, ‘Well, we will file a trespass against you if you don’t knock it off.’”

Given situations like that, Thompson said he feels the commission has no choice but to deny the applicant’s permit.

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.