The trespassing case of a Cheyenne man known for striding into local businesses with a staff in hand and pronouncing hexes on people is set for a bench trial next month, putting his fate in the hands of a judge rather than a jury of Laramie County residents.
Joshua Hayden-Ali, 43, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that he’s opting to go to a bench trial instead of a jury trial because he believes the outcome will be more favorable. He said he finds the Cheyenne Circuit Court judge overseeing his case to be understanding.
Into The Courthouse
Hayden-Ali was originally charged with felony-level intimidation, on claims that he entered the Laramie County Courthouse last August and disrupted its business, threatened its attendees and scattered its papers on Aug. 6, 2024, after early voting had started.
A woman who works in the coffee shop called Laramie County Sheriff’s Office court security deputy Ramon Colvert at about midday to say Hayden-Ali was there.
Hayden-Ali wasn’t supposed to be in the courthouse except for scheduled business, the case affidavit says. He was ordered not to enter the building except on official business that June.
People in the building said Hayden-Ali walked down the hall with his large wooden staff, clicking it with every step, disregarding election officials who asked him to leave. He tore up pamphlets and called a female deputy foul names, court documents say.
He stands 6-foot-4 and goes by the nickname “Wisdom.”
Hayden-Ali told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that he entered the building with such urgency because he wanted to say goodbye to his public defense attorney before she left the job.
“I was about to be switched over because she was leaving,” said Hayden-Ali. “I was going to say goodbye and all that – and find out who was going to be my new lawyer. I didn’t need an appointment for that.”
He said he also hoped to vote but got mad because someone “tried to stop me.”
“And that’s when I just ripped up the little election pamphlet things,” he said.
A Lighter Charge
The intimidation charge, which Hayden-Ali no longer faces because it's been dropped, is punishable by up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. It can be tricky to prove, as a prosecutor would have to show the defendant “knowingly and intentionally” tried to induce fear in election officials “for the purpose of” hindering the election.
The case prosecutor, Laramie County District Attorney Deputy Steven K. McManamen, asked permission in December to reduce the case to the misdemeanor level. When the judge granted that request, the case was re-filed under one count of criminal trespass.
That’s punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.
Last week, after holding a recent scheduling conference, the Cheyenne Circuit Court judge scheduled a bench trial for May 20.
What They’re Saying
Hayden-Ali grabbed headlines this summer as Cheyenne business owners grew weary with what they described as threatening and terrorizing behavior from the man.
A handful of Wyoming shop owners told Cowboy State Daily that Hayden-Ali marches into businesses and threatens to kill people or burn their shops down.
Some said they’re worried for the man’s mental health and described him as a “time bomb.”
Hayden-Ali said he doesn’t have mental health issues.
“They’re out here making me look like I’m crazy, when I’m not crazy,” said Hayden-Ali. “I don’t have no mental health nothin’.”
Some business owners referred to Hayden-Ali as a shaman or "voodoo man."
He said the moniker is fitting.
"Well I mean I only know that I’m a shaman and I have done voodoo and all that stuff," he said.
He said the “Mason family,” meaning Freemasons of a Masonic lodge, has come after him because he cut them out of his life. He said he was affiliated with a lodge of “Royal Masons” in Cheyenne.
He also said the Masons told him to use his witchcraft to cast hexes on local business owners in Cheyenne, and that he did so – and that has caused some businesses to shut down.
“(They’re) having me do their biddings. Do spells and witchcraft on them,” said Hayden-Ali. “They’d say ‘Hey, why don’t you go in there with your staff and your witchcraft, we’re going to hire you to do this.’”
But doing witchcraft on the local businesses made people think Hayden-Ali was crazy, he said, so he decided to quit doing that.
Absolutely Not, Masons Say
Hearing those claims, Scott Kitchner, Grand Master of the Masons’ Grand Lodge of Wyoming, expressed shock.
“That is definitely not anything Masons do or suggest,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday. “That’s very far from the truth. We do not do things like that at all… I don’t even know how to reply to that.”
As for the claim of “Royal Masons” operating in Cheyenne, Kitchner said a Masonic branch called Royal Masons doesn’t exist in Wyoming – and may not exist at all.
The masons, rather, are a charitable organization. They support children’s health care, language clinics and other charitable causes, said Kitchner.
“I mean (his claims are) just outright not true,” said Kitchner.
Kitchner asked the group’s Grand Secretary to check the Wyoming organization’s registries for Hayden’s name, he said.
The result was, “That guy has never been a Mason in Wyoming,” said Kitchner. “Never petitioned to lodge; never been a member of Wyoming Masonry — ever at all.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
