When Eric Snow won the Republican nomination to challenge the Democratic sheriff of Wyoming’s only blue county, one of his fellow deputies approached him in a dark, deserted parking lot, to say, “Hey man, good job.”
Snow described the secretive compliment as an aside, while recounting what he calls a pattern of retaliation from sheriff’s office leadership throughout his campaign.
Sheriff Matt Carr and Lt. Mark Priest both denied Snow’s allegations this week in interviews with Cowboy State Daily.
“I’m pretty much over this, all the political attacks and the false accusations,” said Priest in a Wednesday phone interview.
But Snow’s attorney Mark Jackowski said the saga might be the beginning of a lawsuit.
“We look forward to litigating this matter in court if necessary,” Jackowski said Wednesday. “The truth will come out.”
Meanwhile, three complaints alleging that Carr and/or his office engaged in misconduct are pending before the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday the complaints are “under review.”
Where Do We Start?
Carr, first elected in 2018, declared his bid for reelection at least as early as May.
So did Alberto Rojas, who was then a K9 handler for the Jackson Police Department.
The filing period to run for partisan office stretched from May 14-29.
Rojas had registered to run as a Democrat to challenge Carr in the Aug. 18 primary election.
Rojas dropped out of the race within the filing window and, days later, Carr announced plans to hire him for a new, executive-level position: A liaison with the immigrant community, the Jackson Hole News and Guide reported.
The two men spoke on the phone in the days leading up to Rojas’ withdrawal, the outlet added.
Carr petitioned the County Commission for a special position for Rojas, but ultimately used one of his approved patrol positions to hire his erstwhile challenger.
“Matt likes to say, ‘Oh, well, I saw an opportunity with Rojas,’” said Snow. “Damn right you saw an opportunity. You saw an opportunity to get him out of the race.”
Carr told Cowboy State Daily he didn’t hire Rojas to get him to drop his primary challenge.
“We engaged in a lot of conversations; he was asking me about the process did, our different roles … we got to know one another,” he said.
Because Rojas is a native Spanish speaker, Carr said he saw it as “an incredible opportunity” to smooth immigration-relations issues in Teton County.
Teton County has been a repeat operations target for U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Carr declined in 2024 to honor ICE’s requests to hold inmates 48 hours past their release authorization so that ICE could collect them.
After Rep. Harriet Hageman called out the sheriff publicly, he changed course.
Snow told Cowboy State Daily that if elected, he would honor ICE detainers as a way to remove illegal immigrants involved in crimes. But he would refuse to work with ICE on removing “visa overstays,” he said.
Snow said working with ICE on removing “legitimate criminals” would also help him work smoothly with the agency and tell it not to interfere in lesser matters.
Rojas did not respond by publication to a late-day voicemail request for comment.
The Arrest
Snow arrested 20-year-old Ethan Howard McIntyre on suspicion of drug-impaired driving at around 1:30 a.m. July 18, after stopping him for traveling 69 mph in a 45-mph zone.
Snow reported that McIntyre had a dry mouth, repeatedly licked his lips, paused while saying his last name and had constricted pupils.
McIntyre said he hadn’t consumed alcohol or drugs. The deputy questioned him about bottles in the vehicle, which the youth said were his mother’s essential oils.
In roadside tests, Snow reported, McIntyre’s eyes jerked as they followed an object, and McIntyre turned incorrectly during the heel-to-toe walk.
A portable breath test returned zero alcohol concentration.
Later in the investigation, Deputy Erik Elizondo, who like Snow is a drug recognition expert (DRE), opined that McIntyre was not impaired. The man showed irregular bodily responses, but those could have been from his caffeine consumption and interrupted sleep, the Jackson Hole News and Guide reported.
McIntyre later tested negative for a variety of drugs after submitting to a blood test, and the DUI Snow had recommended was dismissed.
Snow said the events after the arrest have been “wild.”
“In my role as a drug-recognition expert, I do evaluations for other people,” Snow began, adding that he wasn’t acting as a DRE when he arrested McIntyre.
“In the last year,” said Snow, “I have returned two not-impaired evaluations to other agencies. None of them had their cases dismissed. None (of the arresting officers) got disciplined. None got sent out for investigation.”
Snow said the response to the McIntyre arrest “was designed to make me look bad.”
He was first referred to the FBI for an investigation that he calls “meritless on its face.”
Carr said the sheriff’s office reached out to the FBI at the suggestion of the Division of Criminal Investigation. FBI reviewed the case and said it didn’t meet the threshold of a civil-rights violation triggering its involvement, he said.
So the sheriff’s office referred it to Wyoming Highway Patrol, which is reviewing it, said Carr.
Snow said in a Tuesday statement that Carr was aware, during an Oct. 8 League of Women Voters debate, that the FBI was no longer investigating Snow, but the sheriff made no effort to “correct the record.”
Snow told Cowboy State Daily the WHP investigation is a lower-grade probe into personnel conduct.
“It’s not criminal. It’s not anything,” said Snow. “It’s like they just want someone to take a look at the procedures that were followed.”
WHP spokesman Aaron Brown did not return a Wednesday voicemail by publication.
The Phone Call
In mid-September, Snow said, he ran campaign advertisements in the local paper that also touted his DRE certification. He said he felt that would combat bad press – what he called a “hit piece” – that the paper was about to run about him.
The following Monday, Priest called Evan Storch, coordinator for the Wyoming DRE program.
Priest on Wednesday sent Cowboy State Daily a recording of that phone call.
“Ever since that kid (McIntyre) went to the paper about the arrest and everything, attorneys are latching onto it,” Priest told Storch in the recording.
Priest said defense attorneys were using the coverage to rebut Snow’s credibility on DRE evaluations. He urged Storch repeatedly to get Snow to stop conducting DRE evaluations “between now and the end of the election, or whenever this case clears up with Ethan McIntyre.”
Priest told Cowboy State Daily he wasn’t asking for Storch to decertify Snow, but to stop him from doing the evaluations.
Storch said in his own interview, however, that he understood it as a request to decertify Snow.
The recording appears to support both claims, and that the two men may have had a different understanding of the conversation.
Priest told Storch the McIntyre arrest was “not a good arrest.”
Storch said he was stuck because he couldn’t pull Snow’s certification “without having definitive details,” but he would be willing to give Snow advice.
Priest pressed Storch again, saying he was trying to minimize collateral damage because “defense attorneys are already all over us.” The lieutenant said he’d rather Storch halt Snow’s DRE work than send an email to National Park Service and Jackson Police Department personnel that could make Snow “look bad.”
Storch told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that the discussion had “felt a little weird, timing-wise,” and he recalled mentioning the upcoming election in the phone call.
As for Snow, he said he found it significant that the county “had that recording handy.”
On Leave
Priest put Snow on administrative leave last week, days before the election.
Priest emphasized in his interview that this was his own choice, not Carr’s. He said Carr has kept out of such decisions to avoid political entanglement.
Snow said he’s been put on leave on claims that he failed to act – a violation he said usually describes outright negligence.
But in Snow’s case, he continued, it was for his decision to arrest a woman for violating her release conditions, rather than DUI.
After the McIntyre incident and fallout, said Snow, he chose to stick to the more provable component of the arrest: The release conditions violation, rather than risk another clash over a DUI investigation.
Snow said he teaches cops-in-training how to perform field-sobriety tests, and he’s “very well-versed” in DUI investigations. The woman was argumentative and didn’t want to provide a portable breath result, he said.
“My choice was to just make the decision that presented the strongest legal argument; the strongest legal framework to get her off the road,” he said. “That was the release order violation.”
But now that his choice has led to another disciplinary measure, said Snow, “the agency basically has me in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.”
Priest said the agency reviews all deputies’ conduct, and is simply not giving Snow special treatment because he’s a candidate.
Priest said while the Wyoming Highway Patrol investigation has unfolded, there are “Several other things that have come up concerning insubordination.”
Jackowski denied that adamantly, saying he saw no signs of insubordination in Snow’s file, and no issues prior to Snow’s candidacy.
Jackowski said he cannot give Snow’s personnel file to Cowboy State Daily at this juncture.
Kat Stays Busy
Teton County GOP Chair Kat Rueckert filed a complaint with the county and with the secretary of state’s office Aug. 21, alleging bribery in the Rojas incident.
Teton County Clerk Maureen Murphy wrote back Sept. 21 – the same day or approximately the same day as Priest’s phone call with Storch – that she’d retained the Casper law firm Crowley Fleck, and found Carr’s conduct didn’t fit the legal descriptions for bribery.
Rueckert has also filed an SOS complaint accusing Carr of misuse of office.
During a photo shoot with uniformed deputies, around three dozen of them stood for a photograph featuring a banner that says “Matt Carr for Sheriff.”
Rueckert’s complaint alleges misuse of office, saying the deputies were on the clock, and public money paid for the photo shoot.
Several deputies also appeared in uniform and vests at an Oct. 5 GOP forum, according to a detailed compilation by Teton County resident, current city council candidate Jessica Sell Chambers.
Rueckert’s complaint says Carr encouraged them to attend the event, they clapped when not permitted, and “their presence intimidated some attendees.”
The sheriff’s campaign materials also appeared on the department’s table at the Old Bill’s Fun Run nonprofit event, the complaint says.
Chambers’ account shows photographs of that.
Chambers’ account says “the Hatch Act applies” to this conduct. The federal law bars officials who receive federal funding from using their official authority for partisan campaigning.
Rueckert’s complaint alleges these and multiple other instances of what she calls intimidation, misuse of office, and a violation of Teton County regulatory constraints on political activity.
Carr told Cowboy State Daily he has not asked any of his deputies to support his campaign financially or otherwise.
“I support their right to vote for whoever they think will be the best leader for the Teton County Sheriff’s Office,” he said. “To the extent any of them have shown support for my campaign, that’s entirely of their own volition.”
Rueckert in a Tuesday text to Cowboy State Daily pointed to the Rojas incident and Snow’s administrative leave.
“Is it imperative to the current administration that a change in leadership doesn’t transpire so hiring practices of the past don’t come to light?” asked Rueckert.
She referenced Carr’s campaign slogan, adding, “’Fair, Friendly, and Honest’ are not the political watchwords that should be used to describe our current sheriff.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
