A 64-year-old Moorcroft woman is accused of helping poach a pronghorn, hunkering down in a police “standoff,” and having felony quantities of marijuana and methamphetamine in her home.
The felony drug case of Tracy Rene McGee, 64, rose Thursday to the felony-level Crook County District Court.
She was cited April 23 as an accessory before or after the fact for allegedly “wantonly destroying” an antelope doe three weeks earlier, according to her court file in Sundance Circuit Court.
It’s unclear whom McGee was allegedly helping to destroy an antelope: An attendant at the Casper office of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department refused Friday to say who else was involved in that case.
Crook County Attorney Joe Barron could not be reached by publication time.
But First, A ‘Standoff’
When Wyoming Game and Fish wardens Troy Achterhof and Nate Holst tried to serve a search warrant April 21 at McGee’s property on Windcreek Road in Moorcroft, they couldn’t get McGee to come outside, according to a separate evidentiary affidavit filed April 23.
Crook County Sheriff’s Deputies Jory Tadlock and Cody Lenz also went to the home.
The game wardens called McGee and told her they had a search warrant for the property, and that she needed to come outside, says the affidavit, adding that she refused to exit.
Crook County Sheriff’s Sgt. Eric Stevens arrived, calling McGee by phone multiple times for several minutes each time, to try to get her out of the home, reportedly.
She popped onto the porch at one point, then ducked back inside and closed the door. Agents heard the door lock, the affidavit says. They reportedly watched her pace around inside by looking through the windows.
This dragged on for hours.
An affidavit in McGee’s drug case calls the incident a “standoff.”
Neither document says McGee was threatening law enforcement agents or brandishing weapons at them, but she is accused of hunkering down in her home and refusing to follow law enforcement commands.
McGee, whose file indicates she’s out on bond, could not be reached for comment by publication time.
Calling 911 On The Cops
Eventually McGee agreed to come outside and drive to where Sgt. Stevens was. As she did, she had the driver’s side window on her Dodge Dakota truck lowered about 4 inches, the affidavit says. It doesn't explain how she got from the home to the truck. A Google maps search of McGee's address shows a home with an attached or adjoined outbuilding, possibly a garage, at the end of a long driveway off a country road.
Stevens couldn’t see the back seat area of the truck. He asked her to unlock her door so he could look in the back seat. She reportedly refused.
The affidavit says Stevens told her to exit and she refused, even when he told her he’d now have to arrest her for misdemeanor police interference for not complying.
McGee reportedly told Stevens she was calling 911, and Stevens said she could.
She called 911 and told the dispatcher what Stevens was asking of her, and the dispatcher told her to go ahead and follow Stevens’ instructions, the document says.
When McGee still didn’t get out of the truck, Stevens grabbed the top edge of the window and pulled outward on the glass until it broke. He reportedly reached into the window, unlocked the door and removed McGee from the vehicle.
She was handcuffed and taken to jail on suspicion of police interference.
Next, Some Drugs
The affidavit in McGee’s drug case says that while Wyoming Game and Fish executed its search warrant, agents found drugs in McGee’s home, so they called in the sheriff’s office for a separate search.
But before that second search, Deputy Tadlock interviewed her about the alleged drug discovery. At first she denied knowing about any drugs, saying they belonged to two people who lived in the home prior, one of whom was her son, the affidavit says.
Those people must have hidden the drugs in her home, McGee reportedly said.
Suspecting that agents had found an illegal drug inside a black purse in McGee’s bathroom, Tadlock started asking her about her purses. She reportedly said she has four purses: one red, one tan and two black. One of the black ones she described as square or rectangular, with inner pockets, the affidavit says.
But she reportedly denied any knowledge of the drug.
Tadlock asked her to submit a urine sample. The affidavit says she agreed to do so, but later she was released on bond and did not actually submit a urine sample.
She reportedly said she’d used a THC (cannabinoid) vape pen a few days prior with a friend.
Tadlock asked if anything else might be in her system, and she became emotional and said a previous resident was feeding her drugs, the affidavit says. The deputy later wrote that her movements were erratic and jerky; she couldn’t sit still.
The Search
Sundance Circuit Court Judge Lynda Bush issued a warrant allowing deputies to search the house for drugs. They found serval containers of marijuana and meth throughout the home. A black purse allegedly contained raw marijuana THC wax, liquid THC and meth.
The suspected raw marijuana weighed 1.15 ounces without packaging. The suspected methamphetamine weighed 14.2 grams with packaging, and unopened THC vape cartridges weighed in at 2 grams, the affidavit says.
The Felony Case Charges
McGee’s felony meth possession charge is punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines. Her felony THC possession charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $10,000 in fines. She’s also facing misdemeanors of marijuana plant possession, interference with a peace officer, and helping poach big game.
McGee's case is ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
