It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, February 4th. I’m Mac Watson.
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A request to dismiss an animal cruelty charge against accused wolf torturer Cody Roberts was denied on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the Sweetwater County judge in the case confirmed he won’t dismiss the case early.
“So, in Wyoming criminal cases, you have a chance to say, ‘Hey, Judge, there's a purely legal issue where this law does not work for this case. Or, you know, there's legal exceptions that bar this case. It's not a question of facts, like, Did I do it? Did I not?’ But it's a question of law and the mechanical function of it. So that's what Roberts was asserting. Like, this law does not work because I fall into these exceptions for hunting, trapping, capture, killing, destruction of wildlife. The prosecutor is saying, ‘You tormented this wolf after you captured it and before you killed it, allegedly.’ Judge Richard Lavery of the Sweetwater County Court, who's filling in for the Sublette county judge, said he basically agrees with the prosecutor, like, ‘No this in the in between acts that are exempted under our felony torture statute.’”
Roberts trial is set for March 9th.Cody He is charged with felony animal cruelty, following claims he captured a wolf, took it injured into a bar in Daniel, Wyoming, taunted it, then later shot it.
Read the full story HERE.
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Some Wyoming Freedom Caucus legislators are questioning using $15 million in state lodging tax money to lure the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association from Colorado to Wyoming. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that some legislators are saying that Wyoming shouldn’t be giving handouts to businesses that want to come here.
“One of the comments was also made on a Facebook post by one of the representatives. But you know that doesn't necessarily mean everyone in the Freedom Caucus is against this. I did speak with Representative Bear about his position on this. He said he's not ready to outline a clear position, yet he moved it forward in the Joint Appropriations Committee. He voted for it, but he has questions about it, and he is looking into the finances of the PRCA. The Freedom Caucus’ mission to cut the budget as they put it, they feel this is fiscally responsible. They don't want to spend any money, and so, this kind of goes against the platform that they are promoting.”
The $15 million from Wyoming to help the PRCA move here from Colorado would be taken from lodging tax revenues, which are levied on hotel rooms and are earmarked for tourism development.
Read the full story HERE.
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Delisting grizzlies could be imminent, hunting advocates say, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers regulations for bear hunting. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that they say pushing the deadline for the agency's decision on bears to December could be a step toward delisting.
“The US Fish and Wildlife Service was given until January 31st, which was a few days ago, to come up with a decision to either revise or remove its current grizzly bear policy listing them as a threatened species in the lower 48. And they let that deadline pass, asked for and successfully got an extension to December 8th, which is, that's almost a year. And one person I reached out to was Congresswoman Hageman, who has long been pushing for basically to get this out of the realm of the realm of the courts and the agencies and just take it to Congress and just have Congress delist the bears and be done with it. And she says she's continuing to push for that.”
A federal district court judge granted the agency’s request for an extension to Dec. 16th, but that doesn’t mean FWS will wait that long to render a decision; Lizzy Pennock, carnivore coexistence attorney for WildEarth Guardians says the decision could come anytime before the December deadline.
Read the full story HERE.
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Gov. Gordon said that as the University of Wyoming faces a proposed $40 million cut, it should “listen to the people of Wyoming.” Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the governor also fielded questions about dismantling the Wyoming Business Council during a Tuesday forum in Lander.
“The one guy who brought the tension was saying he finds the Wyoming Business Council dubious. Wants more transparency there, and Gordon said, ‘We tend to work really hard on transparency. Could always do better.’ He also said that the legislature, rather than destroying the Wyoming Business Council, should try to reform it.”
Back in November, Governor Gordon proposed an $11.13 billion two-year statewide budget, which would include state money and federal pass-through dollars.The legislative Joint Appropriations Committee last month denied several of the governor’s recommendations in an early draft version of the budget bill.
Read the full story HERE.
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I’ll be back with more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.
Cowboy State Daily news continues now…
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A 62-year-old Evanston man faces felony charges after posting a video online threatening to shoot and kill his neighbors over a property dispute. Cowboy State Daily’s Dale Killingbeck reports that Robert W. Vawdrey, wearing a cowboy hat, leans into the camera and threatens to shoot a neighbor in the head.
“The Uinta County Sheriff's Office was notified about this video by the FBI, apparently, according to the affidavit. And so they went out to the house and phoned this guy, and he and he came out and they arrested him. But what we know is that there's been an ongoing property dispute, and he talks about it in his video where apparently the neighbors are claiming some of his property property line, and he's saying that they got an attorney and that they're trying to take his property. And so there's, apparently, according to the court record, some other court cases involved with this property dispute.”
Vawdrey had his initial appearance in court on Tuesday and faces two counts of intimidating a witness, both felonies, and two counts of violation of a stalking order of protection.
Read the full story HERE.
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A BLM law enforcement officer and two members of his family pleaded “not guilty” to murder and manslaughter charges Tuesday in a shared arraignment hearing in Fremont County District Court. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the judge has set a tentative trial date.
“The judge said a very tentative trial date of May 4. But it's sounding like these defense attorneys are going to ask for more firm trial settings, individual trials, and really get kind of each their own week, rather than you know this, we're all waiting our turn on this same tentative schedule. Day two of the attorneys at least, were like, ‘Let's make sure each guy gets his own week here.’ What happens when you have a stacked trial date is there's like eight defendants, nine to ten potentially, who are all waiting their turn to go to trial. And if one of them gets a plea agreement, then the next guy is up, and then if that guy settles, the next guy is up. And so it's very tentative shuffling.”
BLM officer Richard “Deak” Dollard, Jesse Dollard and Justin Dollard are accused of killing a man in a Lander bar brawl last month. About 20 people attended the hearing, not including attorneys, court security, and press.
Read the full story HERE.
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The body of a Cody man was found and recovered Tuesday in Beck Lake. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that the 50-year-old Cody man had been missing for more than a week.
“David Kelsey was discovered this morning in Beck Lake, which is about two miles from his house outside of Cody. It's believed he left on Friday, January 23 in the evening or early morning, Saturday on foot. How he got there is not known, nor how he died is also not known. The police are not releasing any details, other than to say that it is under investigation. Authorities say there's no indication of foul play.”
It’s believed that Kelsey left his home on Central Avenue in Cody on foot at some point late Friday evening Jan. 23, or early Saturday morning as temperatures plunged below zero.
Read the full story HERE.
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Wyoming drivers gawked at a snowmobile strapped to a broken-down Nissan Altima on Highway 26 near Casper over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that one passing motorist posted on social media, calling the jerry-rigged setup “about as backwoods redneck as you can get.”
“I couldn't find anything to say whether or not it was illegal to transport a snowmobile on the top of a Nissan Ultima, so long as it's safely secured. But
it didn't seem to work out for this particular person from what we're able to put together. It seems like the Nissan broke down somewhere between Casper and Shoshone, which is where many people saw and photographed it, because it's not the sort of thing you see every day, and then the next day, someone else happened to see the same scene, except the Nissan was strapped to a trailer being pulled by a truck, and the snowmobile been tossed into the bed of said truck. Now presumably that was a phone-a-friend situation.”
The biggest shock to everyone on social media was the Natrona County license plate. People couldn’t believe this situation wasn’t a tourist.
Read the full story HERE.
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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.
