The police chief of Manderson, Wyoming, was charged Thursday with six misdemeanors on claims that he tipped his girlfriend off to her warrants, pending drug searches and when officers might try and arrest her.
Brandon “BJ” Kidgell now faces two counts of police interference (each punishable by up to one year in jail and $1,000 in fines), two counts of neglect of duty (up to six months in jail and $500 in fines), and two counts of unnecessary delay in serving a warrant (up to six months in jail and $500).
Big Horn County Attorney Marcia E. Bean filed the charges Thursday in the Basin Circuit Court.
The Girlfriend
The investigation started Oct. 20, the day Manderson woman Dulcie Vanvoorhis was arrested, according to an evidentiary affidavit by Division of Criminal Investigation special agent John McCloud III.
Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office personnel reached out to McCloud over evidence that Vanvoorhis had known about a K9, drug-detection dog, search at her home before it happened. Deputies had reviewed recorded jail calls between Vanvoorhis and her teenage son, in which she gave her son the police chief’s personal cellphone number, the affidavit says.
Deputies also learned that Kidgell had spoken with a Big Horn County employee to check the status of Vanvoorhis warrants before her arrest, says the document.
The affidavit says other jail calls indicated that Vanvoorhis had met with Kidgell Oct. 20, just before her arrest.
Gathering Evidence
McCloud set out to gather the recorded jail calls between Vanvoorhis and Kidgell, and Vanvoorhis and her son.
“These calls indicated that (she) and Kidgell were involved in a romantic and intimate relationship with one another,” wrote McCloud.
The agent also submitted and was granted a warrant for Vanvoorhis’ cellphone and performed a forensic review of it, the document says.
Vanvoorhis and her husband were arrested Sept. 8 in Washakie County for a theft, and when they missed a court date, the court issued bench warrants for them both on Sept. 26, McCloud wrote.
Within that span, back in Manderson, the local probation and parole agents who were monitoring Vanvoorhis’ husband asked the Manderson Police Department – specifically the chief – for help conducting a Sept. 13 K9 search on the pair’s home, says the document.
The Manderson Police Department had the drug-detecting dog, the affidavit explains.
The reason probation and parole agents wanted to do the search was because Vanvoorhis’ husband had given a positive drug test in recent days, McCloud wrote.
‘And I’m Not Playing’
According to McCloud’s investigation, Vanvoorhis texted her son one day before the scheduled drug search, Sept. 12.
“Get everything, and I mean everything! And anything in any pockets of clothes or in closets or drawers or under couches etc!” she texted, according to the document. “The k9 guy” would be there in the morning, she continued, to let his dog into the house.
“If he gets any kinda hit me and ur dad are gone!”
She demanded that her son remove a bong, any pipes, any drug-odorous clothing, and vacuum every corner of the house, according to the text.
The affidavit shows Vanvoorhis voicing bitterness toward her husband, the youth’s dad, saying if they both “go down” the son should bail her out but let his dad “Rot in there!”
The Scenario
When the drug dog searched the house the next morning, it alerted on the master bedroom, says the document.
Police found “items of drug paraphernalia” but no one was arrested or charged at that time, McCloud wrote.
On Sept. 26, Vanvoorhis texted Kidgell that she’d missed court and would have bench warrants issued, says the affidavit.
The document indicates he pledged to look after her, when texted:
“I’ll tell you if we are coming to arrest you! Just don’t answer the door!”
Kidgell later texted her a potential scenario, where he’d be the only person on duty, he’d knock at her home, and no one would answer, says the affidavit.
Vanvoorhis told Kidgell the message confused her.
“That was the scenario baby! I’d call before I come over,” he texted back, according to the document.
Kidgell then told Vanvoorhis to get her kids from school as she normally would, then go home and turn the lights off so it looked like no one was home, and that she could come meet him once his day was over, McCloud recounted from the texts.
More text messages indicate the pair spent “at least some of the evening together” at Vanvoorhis’ home, the affidavit says.
Testing Hot Again
When Vanvoorhis’ husband was reported to have tested positive during a probation and parole urinary analysis Sept. 27, law enforcement scheduled a second search of his home, McCloud wrote.
This time, Big Horn County deputies conducted the search. They found methamphetamine in the home, resulting in Vanvoorhis’ husband being charged with endangering minor children by having meth around them, says the document.
Vanvoorhis’ husband is set for a March 3 trial in Big Horn County District Court. His case affidavit alleges police found a half-gram rock of methamphetamine, in the same room as a baby bassinet. Police asked him whom the drugs belonged to, and they said they were his, the affidavit says.
Vanvoorhis was around for the first part of the search but left shortly after it started. Probation agents tried to make contact to meet with her, but she said she was unable, the affidavit says.
When Big Horn County deputies tried to find Vanvoorhis at her home at around 2:15 a.m. Sept. 28, they saw a Toyota minivan registered to Kidgell in the parking lot across the street from her home, they later told McCloud.
Running
Later that day, deputies tried to find the woman at home but couldn’t.
Text messages between Kidgell and Vanvoorhis from the day indicate she’d left just before deputies arrived, the affidavit says.
“I’m pretty sure they were coming to serve that Worland warrant,” texted Kidgell, according to the document.
Two days later, Vanvoorhis told the police chief that she’d left Wyoming since her charges weren’t extraditable, McCloud wrote, adding that he knew Big Horn County authorities issued warrants for Vanvoorhis Oct. 11, for child neglect/methamphetamine exposure. She would later be charged for the lesser charge of drug possession.
“Once my dispatcher contact gets back to me I’ll let you know all of the above precious,” Kidgell texted Vanvoorhis two days later, according to the affidavit.
A Big Horn County dispatcher had told Kidgell about Vanvoorhis’ active warrants, when Kidgell asked, the dispatcher later told McCloud.
A police officer, whom McCloud also interviewed, remembered telling Kidgell about Vanvoorhis’ warrants.
Text messages between the police chief and the wanted woman indicate they were together around Oct. 17 and Oct 20, in Montana, wrote McCloud. On Oct. 18, Kidgell seemed upset they weren’t spending more time together while they could, the agent added.
“I’ve put my career on the line for you!” the text reads, according to the affidavit.
But he was aware of the risks going in, she countered. “It’s not like u (sic) weren’t completely aware of the risks and everything involved,” she reportedly wrote. “You chose to do these things babe you can’t use them against me.”
The Way Back
Later, Kidgell told her if she was thinking of going to get “the girls,” the best route back would be to Billings, then Sheridan, then Buffalo, then Ten Sleep – and through the back roads to Manderson, says the affidavit.
On Oct. 20, their correspondence indicated she was back in Manderson, and Kidgell had met her in the afternoon.
“Let me drive by town and make sure no cops are there,” the affidavit says, quoting a Kidgell text.
Big Horn County deputies arrested Vanvoorhis that night.
With deputies at her door, she texted Kidgell that she had to find a way to run from them, says the document.
“Bugs (your neighbor) knows you have a warrant,” Kidgell texted back, according to the affidavit. “That’s a safe place and an option!”
Once Vanvoorhis was in jail, she called Kidgell and her son, the affidavit says.
“Parties were made aware these calls were being recorded,” wrote McCloud.
In one of the calls, Vanvoorhis rebutted the idea that a K9 officer had been present during her arrest, reportedly saying, “no f***ing way. He would have told me.”
The Manderson Police Department did not immediately respond to a Friday voicemail request for comment.
The Big Horn County Public Defender’s Office did not immediately respond Friday to a phone message request for comment.
A call to Vanvoorhis’ phone went straight to voicemail.
A man answered the cellphone listed as Kidgell’s on Friday and hung up when told a reporter was on the line.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
