A Carbon County, Utah, deputy is in trouble after being literally caught with his pants down, accused of playing cornhole naked from the waist down.
And Carbon County, Wyoming, Sherif Alex Bakken is making sure people know that’s a Utah deputy involved in that incident, not one of his deputies.
Bakken said he got home and was settling in after a day on the job Tuesday when his phone started blowing up.
“I was about to read a book when the phone started going off,” he said. “My wife said I should check Rawlins News and Chatter on Facebook. And I thought, ‘Those conversations rarely end well, so I can only imagine what's on it now.’”
Sure enough, Bakken saw the story of the half-naked deputy in Carbon County, Utah.
He immediately saw the humor in the confusion, as did most of the people reaching out to him.
“Most people thought it was funny,” he said. “Some were confused, and others were asking if this was one of our guys. It was rather innocuous, but I was thankful it wasn’t one of our guys.”
Bakken decided to quell the confusion with his own Facebook post. He dubbed the incident “the Great Naked Cornhole Mix-up of 2026.”
“A Carbon County, Utah (the Utah part is important) Deputy was recently seen in court after allegedly playing cornhole without pants in his driveway,” he posted. “Shortly thereafter, a Facebook user posted this news headline on one of our esteemed cultural information-sharing platforms (Rawlins News and Chatter Facebook Page), leading users to believe that it was a Carbon County, WY deputy.”
Bakken used his platform to reassure Wyoming residents that the information is valid, but the geography isn’t.
This is a serious case in Utah, and only a humorous one in Wyoming.
The Allegations
The newly filed charges stemmed from an incident on Aug. 7, 2025, when Deputy Rick Adam, 62, was reportedly in his driveway playing commando cornhole, according to charging documents filed in the case as reported by KUTV.
He was seen in the driveway of his home, stark naked from the waist down "without any pants or underwear on,” the charging documents state.
The important thing is that this all happened in Utah, Bakken said. No deputies in Carbon County, Wyoming, have been accused of playing recreational sports in the nude.
That hasn't stopped some Wyoming residents from assuming one of their deputies had been caught with his pants down, he said.
Bare Brief
KUTV reports that Adams also has been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to exonerate himself with a false video he filmed after the incident and submitting it as evidence.
He also has been charged with misdemeanor lewdness.
Bakken wasn’t familiar with the statutes regarding lewdness, a class B misdemeanor in Utah. In Wyoming, a charge of lewdness would vary depending on the location of the incident.
"Lewd and lascivious behavior, public nudity, and things like that are typically handled by municipal ordinances,” he said. “If you had to, you could probably try and articulate a case for public indecency, but luckily we haven't had that call yet.”
Even within the boundaries of their own private domiciles, a pantsless deputy isn’t a great look for a law enforcement officer, not to mention entirely out of uniform.
Nevertheless, Bakken doesn’t anticipate the Carbon County, Utah, case leading to any official policy changes in Carbon County, Wyoming.
“I am not one to judge how a man plays cornhole,” he said. “If he or she finds that he has a distinct advantage by playing without their pants, and they’re operating within Wyoming State statute, I'm all for it. I'm not going to take any action against it.”
Anyways, most Carbon County deputies would have more discretion to play cornhole however they’d like. There’s a lot more personal space in Wyoming than in Utah.
“If you're out in rural Carbon County playing cornhole naked, you're probably not going to get law enforcement contact because people probably aren't going to see you,” he said.
We Are Carbon County
There are four Carbon Counties in the United States, and that has led to confusion in the past.
If there’s a high-profile crime in Utah, Montana, or Pennsylvania, there’s a chance the dispatch center in Carbon County, Wyoming, could get a call about it.
“It does happen, but once in a blue moon,” Bakken said. “Typically, what happens is a press agency will get a hold of us to ask about a story, and it'll be a story that does not resonate with me at all.
"I'll do a little research and figure out that it happened in one of our other Carbon Counties.”
Bakken admitted this was “the first naked cornhole incident” he’s encountered in his career in law enforcement.
He appreciated the opportunity to share in the bemusement about the Carbon County, Utah, incident, even in his official capacity.
“It was a good opportunity to, No. 1, make a funny post so we can all have a laugh, and No. 2, clarify it was not, in fact, one of our guys,” he said. “Just so everyone knows, but this was definitely one of the most entertaining mix-ups I’ve seen.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
