Two-thirds of the Wyoming House of Representatives signed a letter dated Tuesday urging the Trump administration to pardon a 65-year-old diesel mechanic sentenced to prison for deleting emissions controls from diesel engines.
Emissions controls, mandated by federal and some state laws, recirculate, chemically convert or burn diesel exhaust waste to protect in the name of environmental safety.
They also hamper and in some cases cripple or incinerate diesel engines, leveling dramatic repair costs against the transportation industry, trucking company owners told Cowboy State Daily in July.
“Deleting” them is a common practice in the private and commercial trucking sectors alike, the truckers added.
But Wyoming man Troy Lake, 65, happened to be very good at it. He deleted or helped with deletions more than 344 times between 2017 and 2020, according to testimony transcribed at Troy’s sentencing hearing.
That was when his business, Elite Diesel Service, operated out of Windsor, Colorado, court documents say.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of Colorado decided to make an example out of Troy Lake, the transcript says.
He was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, fined $52,500 and will live out his days as a convicted felon.” Unless a president pardons him.
That’s what 41 members of the Wyoming House of Representatives hope President Donald Trump will do.
“We the undersigned Wyoming legislators write to respectfully request your consideration in working with President Trump to grant a presidential pardon to Mr. Troy Lake, a Wyoming small businessman,” begins a letter sent Tuesday to Trump’s pardon attorney Edward Martin Jr. “(He) was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.”
The federal government executed a search warrant of Elite Diesel Service in 2018.
To the Lake family, it was a raid.
Revived Under Biden
The case died down in the tail end of the first Trump administration, but U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigators and federal prosecutors revived the case during President Joe Biden’s administration, ultimately resulting in Troy Lake pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.
The emissions control systems, the Wyoming House majority countered in its letter, are known to cause severe reliability issues:
“Including engine failures, vehicle fires, reduced fuel efficiency, and exorbitant repair costs that fall hardest on truckers, small businesses, and public services,” the letter says.
One of the people who wrote a letter in support of Troy Lake’s pardon was a firefighter, according to documents provided by his family. The other was prison employee who supervises the FCI Florence diesel shop – where Lake is now instrumental.
“Mr. Lake’s modifications, by contrast, ensured the safety and reliability of critical vehicles,” says the letter. Yet, it adds, he’s lost “his fundamental rights as an American citizen, including his right to vote and his Second Amendment rights.”
The letter references federal maneuvers toward repealing the findings underpinning the tight environmental controls Biden’s EPA applied to the trucking industry.
“Mr. Lake is a husband, a father, and community member who has been egregiously wronged by an unelected bureaucracy wielding power Congress never gave it,” the letter says.
Lake was charged under a federal conspiracy law that defers to agency discretion, leaving wide latitude to the EPA and whoever is leading it.
“On behalf of his family, community and fellow Wyomingites, we respectfully urge President Trump to restore (Lake’s) good name and fundamental rights through the granting of a full pardon,” the letter says, concluding, “We deeply appreciate your continued leadership in defending the rights of the American people against government overreach.”
Speaker Sent It
House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, offered up the letter draft for other House members’ signatures last week, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.
He handed it to the Legislative Service Office, which then distributed it to all House members with an offer for them to sign it if they wished – and a deadline of noon Monday – said Neiman.
“It concerns me greatly that an unelected agency full of unelected people is able to give this gentleman a felony conviction,” said Neiman, referring to EPA’s significant role and discretion in the case. “That should scare all of us. Don’t make the agency mad.”
Neiman said he didn't approach the state Senate, of which he's neither a member nor a leader.
Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, did not respond to an earlier Cowboy State Daily request for comment on the matter.
Update
Troy’s wife Holly Lake told Cowboy State Daily in an interview on Tuesday that she’s grateful and overwhelmed by Neiman and others’ support.
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, also voiced support this month for a presidential pardon in the Lake case.
Though sentenced Dec. 5, Troy Lake was allowed to report to the prison Feb. 10.
He’s being released to home confinement with an ankle monitor, on Sept. 4, said Holly.
She said she doesn’t understand the calculations the U.S. Bureau of Prisons used to arrive at the home confinement date or its expiration date, of Dec. 17, but she’s past trying to get answers.
The family is circulating a petition as well, which had 1,451 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I would really like to offer our heartfelt thanks to everybody who’s been behind us on this,” said Holly. “I mean, complete strangers that heard about it.”
The Tally
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus on Tuesday said in a social media post that all of its members signed the letter.
“The WYFC stands with Troy Lake and urges a pardon of his hyper-politicized conviction,” the group’s statement says.
Many House members who aren’t Freedom-Caucus aligned also signed it.
Forty-one House members — all Republicans signed it by the Monday deadline. Fourteen Republicans did not sign it, and none of the six House Democrats signed the letter.
The signors are:
Neiman
Dalton Banks (Cowley)
Marlene Brady (Green River)
John Bear (Gillette)
Gary Brown (Cheyenne)
Andrew Byron (Jackson)
Kevin Campbell (Glenrock)
Ken Clouston (Gillette)
Marilyn Connolly (Buffalo)
Bob Davis (Baggs)
John Eklund (Cheyenne)
McKay Erickson (Afton)
Lee Filer (Cheyenne)
Rob Geringer (Cheyenne)
Joel Guggenmos (Riverton)
Jeremy Haroldson (Wheatland)
Steve Harshman (Casper)
Scott Heiner (Green River)
Paul Hoeft (Powell)
Steve Johnson (Cheyenne)
Christopher Knapp (Gillette)
Lloyd Larsen (Lander)
JT Larson (Rock Springs)
Martha Lawley (Worland)
Jayme Lien (Casper)
Tony Locke (Casper)
Ann Lucas (Cheyenne)
Darin McCann (Rock Springs)
Pepper Ottman (Riverton)
Ken Pendergraft (Sheridan)
JR Riggins (Casper)
Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (Cody)
Mike Schmid (LaBarge)
Daniel Singh (Cheyenne)
Scott Smith (Lingle)
Tomi Strock (Douglas)
Clarence Styvar (Cheyenne)
Joe Webb (Lyman)
Nina Webber (Cody)
Bob Wharff (Evanston)
JD Williams (Lusk)
John Winter (Thermopolis)
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
