A left-leaning Wyoming political action committee (PAC) dispatched a false mailer against Daron Wyatt, the Republican candidate for Albany County Sheriff, but quickly retracted the mailer after about 20 of them were released, the group says.
Better Wyoming Action and Research conceded one factual error and another misleading claim on its mailers attacking Wyatt, who is running for sheriff against the incumbent Democratic nominee Aaron Appelhans.
Better Wyoming Action and Research endorsed Appelhans on Monday.
The group’s mailer claimed Wyatt “deleted evidence of torture under his jurisdiction,” and “faced FBI investigation for federal crimes involving inmates.”
Neither is true.
“After realizing these problems with the content of the postcard, BWAR attempted to stop their distribution,” the group wrote in a web post. “But a few had already been sent out by volunteers. We regret this error.”
Just 20
Nate Martin, executive director of Better Wyoming Action and Research, voiced disappointment that the quickly-retracted 20 mailers should rise to the level of a Cowboy State Daily story.
“If Cowboy State Daily wants to write a big story about 20 postcards that got out into the world, that’s your prerogative. I understand you have to write stories that are sensational,” he said.
The QR code on the mailer now leads to the PAC’s retraction statement.
The statement concedes that Wyatt did not delete evidence of torture. While at the Anaheim Police Department in southern California, he failed to upload the video portion of a questioning in which the suspect, Rafael Garcia Miranda, would later allege Wyatt had beaten a confession out of him.
Wyatt had uploaded the audio portion of the interview, which the department kept in a separate file from the video in those days. A civil jury trial found him not liable on the man’s coercion claims.
The judge in that case found that Wyatt failed to transcribe the video, not that he had spoiled evidence.
Better Wyoming Action and Research’s retraction says Garcia Miranda was “wrongly arrested during interrogation.” The filing history of that case says, rather, that Garcia Miranda was arrested on the street, then charged after his own, ultimately false, confession.
“This just goes on to prove that this group is using factually inaccurate information in some cases, and information take out of context in other cases to try and influence voters,” said Wyatt.
The FBI
Better Wyoming Action and Research also conceded that Wyatt was not investigated by the FBI.
Its web post says he was investigated, rather, by the U.S. Department of Justice, for federal crimes involving inmates.
Wyatt told Cowboy State Daily that even that attempt at a correction is false.
“I’ve never been under investigation by the FBI or any agency for federal or state crimes related to inmates,” he said.
The DOJ investigated the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and district attorney for using jailhouse informants to elicit incriminating statements from people who’d been convicted of a crime, from 2007-2016.
Wyatt had then worked for the Anaheim Police Department, not the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
After multiple searches, Cowboy State Daily has been unable to find proof that the DOJ investigated Wyatt or pronounced Anaheim PD out of compliance for its jailhouse informant program.
Wyatt said that’s because it didn’t happen.
His former supervisor Julian Harvey, who was acting chief for the Anaheim Police Department during Wyatt’s tenure, echoed that in a Monday interview.
Harvey added, “I think he’d make an outstanding sheriff. He’s diligent detective, one of the best we ever had.”
Cowboy State Daily placed requests for comment Monday morning with the Orange County District Attorney and the City of Anaheim. Both were pending as of publication.
In what appears by its phrasing to be an opinion piece, the Orange County Weekly wrote that Wyatt worked with Orange County authorities to hire an informant who coerced a confession from a suspect. Wyatt confirmed the informant was housed near the suspect, but denied any coercion.
Wyatt was not pacified by learning that only about 20 mailers were dispatched.
“Even one of them being delivered with factually inaccurate information is an issue,” he said. “I think it’s unfortunate that they’ve stooped to this level.”
The Other Claims
In his interview Martin said, “most of the claims on the post card are true.”
The mailer says Wyatt “Fatally shot an unarmed man in the head at a traffic stop.”
In 2009, Wyatt was in a moving vehicle struggling with a driver who was reportedly reaching for a nearby knife and driving into an intersection. Wyatt shot the driver fatally in the head.
Wyatt was found justified on two fronts: The prosecutor’s probe, and a civil jury’s later acquittal.
While the civil case was still ongoing in 2014, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals majority ruled that it should go to trial so a jury could sort through inconsistent statements by the officers involved.
Wyatt had estimated the car moved 50 feet in 10 seconds before the fatal shot – so about 3 mph. This was inconsistent with other testimony that the car was hurtling toward the busy intersection.
Wyatt told Cowboy State Daily he had meant to say 50 yards, which is on par with the distance the car covered in those 10 seconds.
He’s now glad he misspoke, he said.
“Because rather than a dismissal via motion for summary judgment, I have a jury verdict in my favor,” said Wyatt.
A jury weighs evidence for or against guilt or liability, while summary judgment means a judge found no factual argument remained for trial.
‘Closely Resembles’
Martin said the “grassroots members” of Better Wyoming are concerned about Wyatt’s history, and believe he “closely resembles the people who were in law enforcement during the time when Derek Colling murdered Robbie Ramirez.”
Derek Colling was an Albany County sheriff’s deputy in 2018 when he fatally shot Ramirez, who was unarmed and struggled with mental-health issues.
Colling was not convicted of murder. The sheriff’s office later settled a lawsuit with Ramirez’s family for $1.2 million.
Wyatt has consistently called alleged similarities between his case and Colling’s a false comparison.
“The circumstances of my fatal shooting were a lot different than that,” he said in an interview last week. “The person I shot and killed was an armed and dangerous parolee, at-large gang member who was selling meth.”
Wyatt said minutes before the Anaheim officers contacted Gonzalez, “he texted a friend and said he was never going back to prison.”
Wyatt said in Anaheim he policed areas ranging from the ultra-wealthy east side to gang-infested ghettos resembling a third-world country, teeming with drugs and violence.
He also said it’s common for police to be sued in California.
Martin said the community remains raw from the Ramirez incident.
“This community worked very hard to get rid of law-enforcement leaders in our sheriff’s office who have a history of violence; who are, you know, repeatedly under investigation for questionable and potentially dishonest tactics,” he said. “For all his imperfections, Sheriff Appelhans has done a good job of improving the sheriff’s office, of emphasizing improved responses to mental health, de-escalation, community partnerships, and community policing.”
Appelhans came to Laramie from Denver as a young adult, and got his law enforcement start at the University of Wyoming Police Department.
He’s been in law enforcement for 16 years. He was appointed to the sheriff’s position in late 2020 after then-Sheriff Dave O’Malley, whose department had hired Colling, resigned.
The Hits Keep Coming
This isn’t the first time detractors have hit Wyatt with false claims on the campaign trail.
Appelhans announced at an Oct. 5 sheriff’s debate that Wyatt was on a “Brady list,” or database of untrustworthy cops.
Wyoming Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) investigated that claim, and could find no evidence for it, the agency reported.
False mailers rocked Wyoming politically in 2024 when the WY Freedom PAC, the campaign arm of the right-leaning Wyoming Freedom Caucus, claimed that certain legislators had voted to keep President Donald Trump off the ballot.
No such vote happened in the Wyoming Legislature.
Some lawmakers voted in favor of limiting state money, so that the Secretary of State's Office could not spend public money on out-of-state lawsuits not directly involving him or Wyoming, without permission.
Two of the lawmakers, Republican Reps. Cody Wylie and JT Larson, sued the PAC for defamation. But they couldn't hurdle the high bar that applies to public figures who want to sue others for defamation.
That case was dismissed earlier this year.
Unlike the Better Wyoming PAC, WY Freedom PAC did not issue a retraction. And its mailers went out to numerous households.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
