The former police chief of Manderson, Wyoming, has agreed to plead no-contest in a case where he was accused of helping his girlfriend evade a drug arrest. In exchange, he’ll get probation and a promise that he’ll give up his policing certification.
BJ Kidgell is scheduled to change his plea next Monday in Basin Circuit Court.
A plea agreement he signed last week says he’ll plead no contest to one count of police interference and another of refusing to perform his duty in a criminal case, both misdemeanors.
He originally faced four more charges: two of delaying in serving a warrant, another of refusing to perform his duty in a criminal case and another of police interference.
If the sentencing judge accepts this agreement, Kidgell will receive a sentence of one year of supervised probation, $1,000 in fines and $300 in victim’s compensation costs to the state, according to the plea agreement written by Big Horn County Attorney Marcia Bean.
If Kidgell gives proof that he’s moving to North Dakota, however, the court may modify his probation to unsupervised, the agreement says.
“If Mr. Kidgell returns to Wyoming for any reason and for any amount of time, his probations shall revert back to supervised for the remainder of the time,” Bean wrote.
Stay Away
Also as part of the agreement, Kidgell must relinquish his Wyoming policing certification and send proof that he’s done so to Bean and his probation agent.
If he fails his terms of probation, he could spend 180 days in jail, the agreement says.
Kidgell’s probation terms would include requirements like following the law, being subject to searches, avoiding convicted felons and people on probation or parole, keeping a curfew, and staying employed.
He would also be required to stay away from the woman he’s accused of helping evade law enforcement, Dulcie Vanvoorhis, and her husband.
During Kidgell’s case, Vanvoorhis was charged with failing to register as a sex offender, a reference to her being a registered sex offender in Oregon since 2004.
She was sentenced to three years’ supervised probation and ordered to pay a fine of $500 in February, court documents say.
The Girlfriend
The investigation started Oct. 20, 2024, the day 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 on 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 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 to let his dog into the house, she continued.
“If he gets any kinda hit me and ur dad are gone!” she also texted.
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, then 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. 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 says police found a half-gram rock of meth 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 on Oct. 11 for child neglect/meth 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.”
Kidgell did not immediately respond Monday to a late-day voicemail request for comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
