Carbon County Sheriff’s Office personnel have a “pretty good idea” who lit part of the state’s law book on fire and threw it from the window of a Cadillac SUV in front of the courthouse Monday, the sheriff told Cowboy State Daily.
Fortunately, it wasn’t windy in the morning, added Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken in a Monday phone interview.
The pages found burning were from Wyoming Statutes Title 41, which pertains to water rights, he said. That’s an “odd” section of law to burn.
“I don’t think it’s anything specific based on the statute that was being burned,” said Bakken. “I just think it was probably some general unpleasantness.”
“Unpleasantness,” protest, or otherwise, throwing burning substances from a vehicle is a misdemeanor in Wyoming, punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.
This case doesn’t appear to rise to a more targeted level of action described in the felony charge of threatening witnesses or officials, added Bakken.
“The investigation is ongoing but yes, we have a pretty good idea who (the suspect) is,” he said.
Bakken posted a fleeting video of the incident to his official Facebook page Monday, along with the words, “If you are the driver of a Blue 2008 Cadillac with Wyoming County 6 license plates, we are happy to inform you that we have located the pile of torn-up, burning, Wyoming State Statute pages that you must have inadvertently dropped out of your vehicle while passing the Carbon County Courthouse!”
The post is pointed, indicating that not only do investigators believe they know who the suspect is, they believe the suspect was driving his or her mother’s car.
“Since no decent, sensical, productive citizen would light a pile of Wyoming State Statute pages on fire, drive their mother's car to the courthouse, and eject said burning pile of literature into the road in front of the courthouse, we can only assume it was an accident,” adds the post.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
