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

<title>Daily Cartoon: Monday, September 30, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: Monday, September 30, 2024

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Economic developers have spent decades trying to diversify Wyoming’s economy away from the volatile boom-and-bust cycles of its coal, oil and gas industries. Tech infrastructure — data centers — seemed like the answer, and is something the state’s been pursuing for the last 20-plus years. 

Now that data centers are finally racing toward the state’s wide-open prairies and cheap power, however, the rush is forcing a choice. How much growth is Wyoming will to accept, and at what cost to power bills, water supplies, and its wide-open spaces? 

Wyoming wants high-paying jobs and more housing so it has a future for its children. It loses 70% of its youths by the time they’re 30, according to state officials. 

But, at the same time, it also wants quiet prairie, low power bills, and tight control over scarce water supplies. Each new data center is a tug on all those resources.

To longtime Cheyenne attorney and Councilman Larry Wolfe, this tension is actually nothing new. Wyoming has long been a place where its residents understand that boom almost always precedes bust and broken promises. Many have thus learned to be skeptical of promises and promise makers. 

In fact, the bigger the promise is, the higher the skepticism goes.

“This is exactly the discussion that went on all over the state as we’ve seen all of our energy booms and busts that we’ve endured,” Wolfe told Cowboy State Daily in a previous interview. “And I think people are a bit schizophrenic about this, because they live in Wyoming for a reason.”

Sometimes those reasons are fairly simple. It falls somewhere between knowing your neighbors and having a short drive to get away from them all to a place where the night sky is clean and clear and the Milky Way can be seen.

Holding onto that is about preserving a quality of life that has not only drawn people to the state but kept them here. And it’s about making sure the price paid for such treasure doesn’t come too cheaply. 

“This is just another long cycle of that over the years,” Wolfe said. “It’s just the way Wyoming is. We’ve always had this sense that we want to maintain the Wyoming that we have. But we also realize that it’s not sustainable without all of these things coming in, making these huge investments, and putting our people to work, and then building the housing that will, in fact, accommodate that.”

For Wolfe, data centers are just the latest boom-time bargain, promising investment and jobs while testing how much Wyoming is willing to change. 

Today’s push-pull on data centers has an element of deja vu for economic developers, too. 

Wyoming Business Alliance President Renny MacKay agreed with Wolfe that the conversation is really nothing new. The best illustration of that is found in former Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s book, “Wyoming: The Paradox of Plenty."

“He explains it well,” MacKay told Cowboy State Daily. “The tension between that and diving into when the coal industry came to Wyoming. There was a lot of concern about that.”

That happened around the same time as the cattle bust of the 1980s, MacKay said, and has led to an iconic bumper sticker often referenced in Wyoming.

“Dear God give me one more boom,” the bumper sticker goes. “And I promise not to piss it all away next time.”

Skepticism when it comes to economic development is not necessarily bad, MacKay added, particularly if an effort isn’t private-sector led.

“Sometimes you’ve got to take some bets,” he said. “But what we’re seeing now that I think is so positive is the private sector is trying to lead this. Data centers aren’t coming here and asking for any sort of land donation or incentive to come at this point. The conditions, the economic conditions, are in a great place for us to attract some new industries.”

That doesn’t have to just be data centers, MacKay added. Done right, it could also lead to other developments as well. The new nuclear power plant in Kemmerer is an example, as is the nuclear fuel production plant that’s coming to Gillette.

“They’re not coming here and saying, ‘If you invest in our company, then we can grow in Wyoming',” MacKay said. “That’s why I think the business industry sees so much opportunity right now in Wyoming’s future.”

Growth, MacKay added, is key to Wyoming’s future, even if there might be challenges.

“To some degree, you have to take a step back and look at the forest,” he said. “There are so many people who are excited about this moment. They see that their livelihoods are being improved. They’ve got jobs, they’ve got family members who’ve got jobs. So when we’re talking about building Wyoming and attracting people who want to invest in Wyoming as individuals and families, they’re wealth generators and they want to help make this state and our communities more prosperous.”

Making life great for the next generation is the bedrock of MacKay’s own personal motivation. 

“I look out at my own kids, right,” he said. “Or even my neighbor’s, too, and my peers. They’re starting to see more opportunity in Wyoming, where they don’t have to leave to find a great job. So let’s stay focused on the positive, because I think more people do truly want job creation in Wyoming and want higher-paying jobs that we’re starting to see happen.”

Crook County rancher and former state legislator Tyler Lindholm with Americans For Prosperity gets both ends of the spectrum. He absolutely wants to see Wyoming hang onto what makes it the Cowboy State.

It’s fair, he added, to question the guardrails around important issues like power consumption and water use.

“Wyoming is fantastic at producing energy,” Lindholm told Cowboy State Daily. “Clearly, these data centers recognize that. So, I think it’s fair to bring up certain scenarios. I mean, when people talk about their rates being affected because of a new, large industrial load coming in, I think it’s fair to bring up that concern and let the company address that. Let the local utility address that, and if they won’t address that, by golly, let’s pass a law ensuring that you are only going to pay for what you get. Those types of scenarios are completely fair.”

But “screaming and shrieking to hear themselves scream and shriek” in an election year isn’t coming from a “principled standpoint,” Lindholm said. 

There’s a distinction between policy-focused criticism and what he sees as election-year theatrics, he added.

“We need to let the economy work,” he said. “And I think we can have our cake and eat it, too. We can do responsible development and see the economic growth and be a beneficiary of it.”

Not through moratoriums to shut down business, or aggressive zoning crafted to choke business out — both proposals that have surprised Lindholm in a deeply conservative state. 

That kind of approach, he added, is not what Wyoming is best known for. The state is better known for everybody putting “heads together” and coming up with a plan that preserves what’s important while allowing economic prosperity. 

That’s what the state did when it was developing its bedrock energy industries. That’s what Lindholm hopes to see happen with data centers, which want to rely on and help bolster the state’s legacy energy industries.

“Maybe I’m too optimistic that we have the capability to do big things and make big plans, but I think if they — and outfits like Microsoft have been outspoken that they’ve got those situations handled,” he said. "I think it’s also fair to say, 'OK, well let’s make that part of the deal'. Let’s put it in law and make it so that it covers every data center that’s even already in place.”

At the same time, lawmakers could also handle other issues, Lindholm added, such as making it illegal for elected officials to sign NDAs with private companies.

That kind of secrecy isn’t the right approach, Lindholm added. 

“This is 2026, the age of information, where anybody can look up anything at the drop of a hat,” Lindholm said. “So maybe this is a lesson to big business, big industrial loads, is to get out in front of this, talk about it publicly, and talk about how you’re not going to raise electricity rates.”

Lindholm’s bottom line is that Wyoming should write clear rules on rates, transparency and water use, so new projects can enter the state smoothly.

Lindholm wasn’t the only voice across the state suggesting it’s important to strike the right balance for incoming data centers.

Business owners, too, are largely supportive, but also want to see that thought has been put into appropriate guardrails.

“I’m pro data center, but I’m not pro reckless development,” Frog Creek Partners owner Brian Deurloo told Cowboy State Daily. “I’m not blind to the impact of data centers, but I’m saying Wyoming should lead solutions. Water, power, heat, workforce, land impacts need to be engineered and negotiated upfront.”

Cheyenne business owner Tighe Fagan, who leads an enterprise software and IT consulting company called Gannett Peak Technical Services, told Cowboy State Daily data centers probably wouldn’t be his first pick, so he understands everyone’s pain with a lot of boxy-looking warehouses taking up space.

“It’s not the way they exactly want it,” he said. “But to me it’s like, well, we want diversification, and this is a vector into that.”

The plus side to multiple data centers, though, is more career flexibility for that sector, which can help businesses like his with recruitment and retention of Wyoming youths.

“I’m trying to recruit people out of the university to come work at my company, so I want an ecosystem where they can come and there’s agglomeration,” he said. “That’s where you have options. Like, OK, if we get a bunch of data centers, well then the people working at Google can jump over to Microsoft.”

For Fagan, a certain level of “agglomeration” means graduates will be more likely to build careers in Wyoming instead of leaving.”

Are Data Centers Paying Their Fair Share?

One of the central questions some lawmakers are asking is whether Wyoming is taxing data centers appropriately.

State Sen. Cale Case has been among the most outspoken voices on that front.

Wyoming’s tax structure was crafted when the state didn’t have much experience with data centers. 

“We had no idea how much money it was actually going to cost us,” Case said. “And we didn’t think through that very well.”

The employment stats from a data center, once built, are small, Case said, while its demands on resources are potentially outsized when it comes to power consumption. That’s true even if data centers adopt a “bring your own power” mentality, because they’ll be using substantial resources from one or another commodity market, he said.

Even if data centers adopt a “bring your own power” mentality, they’ll be using substantial resources from one or another commodity market. That means they’ll still have impacts on the overall marketplace even if they build their own power generation. 

That has him questioning just how good they are for economic development, which was the original rationale for the state’s sales-tax break.

In his view, Wyoming is giving up significant tax revenue in exchange for relatively few permanent jobs, and a potentially heavy load for power and other systems. 

“I’m not sure that we’re being negative when we say, ‘This is not living up to what we thought it would',” Case said. “I’m not sure that’s what we mean when we say, ‘We’re open for business'.”

The economic development Wyoming wants is more related to having kids in schools and vibrant communities, Case said. And vibrant communities mean having data centers pay for the impact of their presence. 

“What is the value of the servers?” he said. “You could find that out by the property tax, and then you could multiply them by the sales tax that’s been foregone, which is 8%, and then just ask yourself if that’s worth it.”

Thirty-five other states have data-center tax breaks like Wyoming’s, he added, which has contributed to a race to the bottom, with each state vying to outdo the other to lure data centers.

“My gut tells me that these guys just want to build these things,” Case said. “They don’t really care about the cost. They don’t care if they have to completely go to a closed-loop cooling system. They don’t care if they have to build their own electricity. They want it so bad, and I just don’t think that they need our sales tax break.”

What Case wants to do is work on eliminating the break across the country. 

“Then data centers will be even better for our communities, because they’ll be contributing to community infrastructure,” Case said. 

And if the state’s data center boom ultimately goes bust, it will also mean the state is on stronger footing to deal with any fallout.

Analysts, Case added, are estimating new data center construction of upwards of 3,000 facilities on top of an existing 4,000. Those new builds will be exponentially larger than anything previous. 

But does that match the real need? Or does it represent overbuilding, as some analysts think?

“There’s got to be a market for data processing, right?” Case said. “I mean, there’s implicit price in there. There are companies that are searching for it. There’s demand that’s growing. There’s supply factors. so the question is, could we get overextended? Could we have overbuild? And actually this is what happens with virtually anything else. You have rampant people trying to enter a market, whether it’s planting corn or the big boom in whatever we’re talking about. It always ends. It never goes on forever.”

The question then becomes, who is left holding the bag, and what will that mean for the communities involved.

“That’s another reason to not have soft tax breaks that exacerbate (the situation),” Case said. “We need to try to steady things out. We really ought to be talking to other states about joint policies, instead of pursuing this zero-sum game of you put in a tax break, so I got to put in a tax break. Everybody puts in a tax break. Then we all end up getting nothing when they’re willing to pay, and they’re not impactless.”

Case is not arguing against data centers but against subsidies that, in his view, magnify risk if the boom ultimately goes bust. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"An Important Crossroads"}]

Wyoming, Gov. Mark Gordon told Cowboy State Daily during a recent data center tour in Cheyenne, stands at a crossroads, one that will define its future. 

He’s advocating that Wyoming embrace the opportunity, and work on the challenges together.

“I remember when the saying was, ‘Please God, give me another boom. I promise not to waste it this time',” Gordon told Cowboy State Daily. “And you think back to the end of the 1990s, early 2000s, and the state was broke. We didn’t have much money. And so here we are, we have this opportunity.”

Water and power concerns are legitimate questions, Gordon said.

“These are things we can work to,” he said. “What I think is really frustrating, and your schizophrenia question is really clear, because we want to teach more CTE, we want our kids to have better jobs and all of this, but we won’t build housing they can move into. So we’re doing a great job of training Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Idaho and Montana’s workforce … and that’s a problem.”

Done right, data centers are a chance to provide the right kind of opportunities for Wyoming’s youths, to help keep more of them in the state, and build in some diversity, while also helping to bolster legacy industries like oil and gas, as well as build new energy sectors like nuclear, he said.

“Construction will come and go,” Gordon said. “And that’s what it is with the oil field, that’s the way it is with opening a mine, and that’s the way it is with a lot of certain jobs. But the jobs that are going to be here for the long-term are steady, good-paying jobs, and ones that our kids can aspire to.”

Whether Wyoming misses this boom, or finally breaks into a cycle less dependent on the booms and busts of commodity-based industries might depend less on data centers themselves, and more on the guardrails it chooses now for water, power, and tax policy. 

It will also depend on how much change it’s willing to accept to keep its children home, and its night skies clear.

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<title>Looming Data Center Boom Tests Wyoming’s Promise Not To ‘Piss It All Away' | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After decades of chasing diversification, Wyoming is finally landing data centers. The boom is forcing the state to confront a familiar boom-and-bust tension: How far to go in courting prosperity without losing the things that make Wyoming, Wyoming?

Looming Data Center Boom Tests Wyoming’s Promise Not To ‘Piss It All Away'

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Government & Politics

A controversial flood mitigation effort that brought 150-200 goats to graze along Bitter Creek in Rock Springs is on hold, at least for now.

After spending about $200,000 over three grazing sessions since the spring of 2025, the Rock Springs City Council chose not to budget additional money for the project in the coming fiscal year, instead directing funding toward cemetery lighting.

"This will be the last we see goats, at least for the next fiscal year of operations," Councilman Dan Pedri told Cowboy State Daily.

The decision at least temporarily halts a program that has generated equal parts criticism and curiosity.

Some residents questioned whether taxpayers should spend tens of thousands of dollars to have goats eat weeds. Others regularly stopped to watch the herd quietly graze along Bitter Creek.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's a little source of entertainment,\" Pedri said."}]

During the latest grazing session, which began April 1 and ended June 30, the goats removed roughly 35 tons of vegetation, according to mayor Max Mickelson.

“This does not meet the creeks are ‘fixed',” he said. “It means one more piece of the long-term flood mitigation work was completed.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Different Approach"}]

Rock Springs has struggled with periodic flooding for decades, Mickelson said, dating to alterations made to the creek channel by the former Union Pacific Coal Company.

"The goal was simple," Mickelson said of the Bitter Creek project. "Reduce noxious weeds, brush and fuel load along the creek corridors so water can flow more freely, fire risk is reduced, and our intermittent creek system is in better condition before the next major storm event.

"Our broader work is about protecting homes, businesses, infrastructure and development opportunities from recurring floodplain impacts."

The city brought in goats in the spring of 2025 on a trial basis, paying a Cheyenne operation $50,000. Mickelson said the goats “performed better than expected.”

Council member Randy Hanson had asked the council to look into goats, pointing to other Wyoming communities such as Cheyenne and Gillette that were using them successfully for targeted grazing.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We aren’t pioneers of this process by any means,” Pedri said."}]

Farson land and livestock owner Josh Skorcz caught wind of the project “through the Rock Springs grapevine” and pitched himself as a local solution to the flood-risk problem.

[{"type":"text","text":"Skorcz was the only person who bid."}]

“I provide a service,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I saw an opportunity where we could supply a service to a local entity that needed it.”

In the fall of 2025, the city paid $58,000 to Skorcz’s LS 5 Livestock for eight weeks.

Then, in April, the Rock Springs City Council voted 6-2 to use goats for a third year for $92,000 – a 59% cost increase.

The increase was largely due to more acreage and longer duration, Skorcz said.

"The city did not pay $34,000 more for the same amount of work," Mickelson said. "The scope, timing, staffing and logistical burden increased in relation to the scope of the project."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why Goats?"}]

Skorcz said goats can reach steep, brush-choked areas where heavy equipment struggles to operate, reducing vegetation that can create debris dams during high-water events.

[{"type":"text","text":"The work, however, is labor intensive."}]

Under the city's contract, the herd had to be supervised around the clock. Workers also installed and repeatedly moved roughly 10,000 feet of portable electric fencing by hand.

"We're trying to see that incremental decrease over time of the amount of noxious weeds and thick vegetation," Skorcz said. "You're always going to have vegetation, but the type is what's important."

Mickelson said alternatives such as mechanical removal, herbicides, prescribed burning or major construction each come with significant limitations, permitting requirements or environmental restrictions.

Despite reaching stated goals, the project’s growing price tag remained a sticking point.

Pedri and Councilman Rick Milonas – a vocal critic of Mickelson and a contender for this year’s mayoral seat – voted against approving this year's $92,000 contract, saying many constituents questioned the expense.

"That's why I opted not to do it," Pedri said. "My vote was based on the constituents that reached out to me and my promise to be the voice of the majority."

The cumulative cost — roughly $200,000 over three projects — has also become an issue in the mayoral race.

Candidate Katherine Phelps has repeatedly criticized the program on social media. She did not respond to Cowboy State Daily's request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pedri said the debate ultimately came down to competing priorities."}]

Like many cities, Rock Springs faces a limited budget while weighing other costly needs, including long-term repairs to its civic center.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Could The Goats Return?"}]

Although the goats won't return next year, Mickelson said the city is awaiting a vegetation study from LS 5 Livestock evaluating the project's effectiveness.

That report will help determine whether targeted grazing is included in future budgets after the 2027 fiscal year.

"We intend to make it an annual tool," Mickelson said, "based on council deciding to allocate funds for it."

[{"type":"text","text":"He acknowledged the program's cost can be difficult to justify."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Nobody likes spending $92,000,\" he said."}]

But he said he believes prevention is ultimately less expensive than recovering from flood damage.

"A community pays one way or another," Mickelson said. "We can pay in steady, boring maintenance before the storm, or we can pay in emergency response, damaged property and regret after it.

"I would much rather answer hard questions about prevention today than stand in front of flooded homes and explain why we didn't use a cost-effective tool we had available."

For now, the city will continue monitoring the Bitter Creek corridor. If conditions create an immediate flood or fire risk, Mickelson said, the council could consider a future budget amendment.

Hungry goats 1 7 6 26

<title>Rock Springs Ends Controversial Goat Grazing Program After Spending $200,000 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After spending about $200,000 in goat grazing for flood mitigation since 2025, the town of Rock Springs is putting an end to it for now. One council member said residents say it’s too expensive. "This will be the last we see goats,” he said.

Rock Springs Ends Controversial Goat Grazing Program After Spending $200,000

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

A Fourth of July fundraiser concert at a Gillette bar had ended, the music was over and patrons were beginning to head home when a firework exploded outside the entrance, blowing all the fingers off one man’s hand and injuring four other people.

"I tried to light a firework and throw it, it blew up instantly," Matthew Lynch said in a public apology he issued Monday about the mishap. "People got hurt and I feel like total shit for it.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I’m sorry for being wreckless (sic) and injuring anyone.\""}]

The explosion happened around midnight early Saturday outside the Otherside Bar & Grill, where a concert raising money for a reproductive health clinic had wrapped up about 30 minutes earlier.

"I almost bled out and got life flighted to Billings,” Lynch wrote in his apology posted to Facebook. "I'm gonna be fine. I'm back home. I'm positive and feel OK, other than immense pain."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bleeding Profusely"}]

Otherside Bar & Grill owner Chris Ingersoll described the scene to Cowboy State Daily on Monday.

"There was a gentleman with an arm injury bleeding profusely,” he said.

Ingersoll said someone — possibly one of his bartenders — applied a tourniquet before first responders arrived. 

Police officers were only about a block away and reached the scene within minutes to begin rendering aid, he said.

Ingersoll said he believes a man who had come over from another nearby bar ignited what appeared to be a large firecracker near the front entrance.

Surveillance cameras captured the incident, and the video has been turned over to investigators, he said.

Lynch also wrote that he lost all the fingers on his right hand, shattered the bones in his left hand, suffered burns, hearing damage and partial blindness.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Investigation Ongoing"}]

Gillette Police Department Interim Chief Brent Wasson said the incident remains under investigation and no tickets or arrests have been made.

He also pushed back on early reports that the firework had been "launched" from the man's hand.

"There were no launching of fireworks," Wasson told Cowboy State Daily, cautioning against relying on initial reports while investigators continue determining exactly what happened.

[{"type":"text","text":"Whether alcohol played a role remains unknown, he said."}]

According to Wasson, the person who was handling the firework suffered the most serious injuries and was transported by ambulance to the emergency room at Campbell County Health.

Two additional people were taken by ambulance but declined treatment at the hospital, while two others refused transport at the scene.

Ingersoll said he believed the man who was holding the explosive was out of the hospital and back in Gillette, which Lynch confirmed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Messages left for Lynch weren’t returned by publication."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Explosion, Not Fire"}]

Campbell County Fire Department Battalion Chief Cam Siplon said firefighters were dispatched to the bar for a report of an explosion.

By the time crews arrived, the Gillette Police Department and EMS personnel were already treating patients, he said. Firefighters found no fire or smoke, only a crowd gathered in the parking lot.

Based on the severity of the injuries, Siplon said he would expect the firework was something larger than a typical firecracker, although he emphasized that was not an official determination.

He also could not confirm who applied the tourniquet because EMS had already begun treating the injured man when firefighters arrived.

Siplon urged people to leave fireworks to professionals, noting that serious injuries are more common than many people realize.

"Our best bet is that fireworks should be left to the professionals," he said. "They tend to be better anyway, and not as many people get hurt that way.”

Otherside bar and grill gillette 7 6 26

<title>Gillette Man Blows Fingers Off Hand With Firework Outside Bar, Four Others Hurt | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A man blew the fingers off his hand and injured four other people outside a Gillette bar around midnight Saturday. In a public apology, the man, who was life-flighted to Billings, said he tried to throw the firework "but it blew up instantly."

Gillette Man Blows Fingers Off Hand With Firework Outside Bar, Four Others Hurt

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

Clair McFarland

Courts

Fourteen months after a man was found in an abandoned red truck in a remote region of the Wind River Indian Reservation with two gunshots in his head, prosecutors have no ongoing, public murder cases in the December 2024 death of Riverton man Rex Lofts.

Lofts, 72, died of what the autopsy report called a homicide with two gunshots in his head around Dec. 2, 2024, but his body 

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agent Kingston Cole’s investigation affidavit

Cole, DCI Team Leader Brady Patrick, and others investigated the case. The result was a 12-page affidavit by Cole, which Fremont County Chief Deputy Attorney Tim Hancock filed alongside a felony murder charge in Riverton Circuit Court on Oct. 24, 2025 – against Fort Washakie man Jose Gonzalez.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gonzalez wasn’t the only person implicated."}]

Cole’s affidavit, drawing from confidential informant and identified source interviews, alleges that Gonzalez, Luke Evan Engavo Sr. and his son Luke Evan Engavo Jr., Skeeter Engavo, Zackary Witt, and Fabian Tarness were all present and involved when Lofts was shot.

Gonzalez, whose DNA was reportedly found on Lofts’ truck steering wheel and on the dead man’s out-turned pockets, was the only one formally charged – at least as far as the public case file shows – in this case. He was charged with felony murder on that basis: a charge theorizing that he was committing the felony of aggravated burglary, and Lofts died in the process.

[{"type":"text","text":"Hancock dropped that case early last month."}]

“The fact that we have some co-defendants over which we do not have jurisdiction and only one over which we had jurisdiction creates a lot of complications in prosecution,” said Hancock.

[{"type":"text","text":"He declined to go into detail on the jurisdictional challenges."}]

But the way felony-level prosecution on the Wind River Indian Reservation works in general, the federal government through its Wyoming-based U.S. Attorney’s Office would prosecute defendants who are tribal members. And 

Fremont County Attorney’s office would prosecute non-tribal members implicated in crimes on the reservation.

Past court filings for each man list them all as “American Indian,” but call Gonzalez “white.”

As of Monday, Wyoming’s federal court file showed no current charges for any of the suspects.

“The feds are the only ones that have jurisdiction over (Gonzalez’s) codefendants,” said Hancock. “It’s just – it’s a prime example of where jurisdiction gets difficult.”

Hancock added, “They have a different way of doing their prosecutions than we do.”

Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt, who shared the phone interview with Hancock on Monday, said the federal U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wyoming “has always been a system where their discretion often outweighs the public’s expectation.”

Wyatt was appointed by the Fremont County Commission when his predecessor left mid-term, but normally the Fremont County Attorney is elected – whereas the top federal prosecutor of each region is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Daily Cartoon: Monday, September 30, 2024

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