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Mark Heinz

Government & Politics

Legislature

Wildlife agents are killing just as many — if not more — grizzly bears every year because of human-bear conflicts than hunters would if there were grizzly hunting seasons, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce told lawmakers.

An average of 21 “conflict” bears are killed in Wyoming every year, whereas 20 grizzly tags might be issued for a “conservative” Wyoming hunting season, Bruce said Wednesday.  

She made those remarks before the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.

Bruce has been an outspoken advocate for delisting grizzlies in the Lower 48 from federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection. 

So has her predecessor, former Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik, who is now director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Bruce told the committee that she regards grizzly hunting as a vital “management tool” that her department is now denied.

That is “allowing these bears to be more comfortable in the ecosystem and spreading outside the ecosystem than they would be if we had a hunting season,” Bruce said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Be Patient’"}]

While giving the committee an update on Game and Fish, Bruce mentioned efforts to delist grizzlies, which started a discussion on the matter.

Grizzly delisting involves federal policy, so the committee took no action. 

There’s an ongoing, two-pronged approach to get grizzlies in the Lower 48 delisted, Bruce said. She didn’t mention a time frame for when it might happen.

There are efforts to take an “administrative” approach through FWS, as well as a legislative approach, through bills pending before the U.S. Congress.

Last year, Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced 

, the Grizzly Bear State Management Act, and Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis introduced a mirror bill.

On the administrative side, Bruce said the goal is to come up with a “durable” delisting plan that will “last through the court system.”

Previous grizzly delistings, most recently in 2017, were overturned by federal judges.

“We are working very closely with our Fish and Wildlife Service partners in the effort to delist the grizzly bear,” Bruce told the committee. "I will tell you and ask you to be patient, because these things take time.

“You won’t see anything publicly-facing on this until later in the year. But just know that it is a continuous work in progress."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Just One Judge"}]

Committee member Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, remarked that “all it takes is one judge to undo all of that effort.”

“How easy is it for a different (presidential) administration to just come in and wipe it away on Day One?” Boner asked Bruce.

Bruce said the goal is to craft a delisting plan that is built “on science,” but noted that an administrative delisting could be overturned.

“That’s why we’re not letting off the gas when it comes to the legislative fix — a congressional action to delist them,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Mother May I?’"}]

Game and Fish is already essentially managing grizzlies in Wyoming, and spending about $2 million a year doing so, Bruce said.  

However, with ESA protection still in place for grizzlies, federal authorities have the final say, she said.

“We still have to go to the Fish and Wildlife Service and ask ‘mother may I?’ beforehand,” Bruce said.

Committee member Rep. Robert Wharff, R-Evanston, asked Bruce when Wyoming’s grizzly population reached objective numbers.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Over 20 years ago,” Bruce responded."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Roadless Protection"}]

If the goal is to kill fewer grizzlies, hunting might be the better option, Wharff said.

“People need to understand that grizzly bears are dying even under federal protection, they are being removed rather than using sportsmen to hunt those bears,” he said.

“The agency is put in a pretty tenuous position. They don’t want to be killing grizzly bears, but that’s one of the realities,” Wharff added.

Richard Garrett, government affairs advisor for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC), told the committee that the GYC is willing to keep talking about a “durable and sustainable” plan to delist grizzlies.

 on national forests could affect grizzlies, he said.

Roadless areas reduce human-bear conflict, Garrett said.

“We’re seeing a lot of human activities on roadways right now,” he said. "Because grizzlies are very active and applications on cellphones are very active too."

Calls to delist grizzlies surged again after 

 in Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, and in Idaho.

In Yellowstone, two brothers were severely hurt when a grizzly mauled them, and a grizzly is thought to have killed a hiker in Glacier.

In Idaho, a black bear hunter shot and killed a grizzly that charged him and his son. Wildlife agents ruled that the shooting was legitimate self-defense.

Grizzlies may be hunted in Alaska and parts of Canada. Those in the Lower 48 haven’t been hunted since they were put under ESA protection in 1975.

Whether hunting grizzlies makes them more fearful of humans and mitigates human-bear conflicts

 among biologists and bear conservation advocates. 

Some claim that it’s effective, others argue that it makes no difference.

Angi Bruce and grizzly 5 27 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Director Says Game And Fish Likely Killing More Grizzlies Than Hunters Would | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming is killing more "conflict" grizzlies than would be killed by hunters if the bears were delisted, the state Game and Fish director said Wednesday. One legislator said that if the goal is to kill fewer grizzlies, hunting might be the better option.

Director Says Game And Fish Likely Killing More Grizzlies Than Hunters Would

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Star Valley man accused of killing his wife during a drunken argument in November 2024 was found not guilty Tuesday by a jury following a six-day trial that ran a day longer than originally planned.

The closely watched case stretched through the holiday weekend before jurors ultimately returned an acquittal.

The verdict marked the latest turn in a case that has hung over western Wyoming since Jared Erickson’s wife, Tennille, was found dead in her Star Valley home in November 2024.

"We appreciate the jury's hard work on the difficult case," said Erickson's defense attorneys, Tom Fleener and Devon Peterson. 

Assistant District Attorney Blaine Nelson, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, declined to comment on the trial or the verdict. Multiple voicemails to the District Attorney who filed the inititial charges, Dan Itzen, were not returned. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Contentious Case Finally Reaches Jury"}]

The case had drawn attention months earlier during a contentious 

in Lincoln County Circuit Court, where prosecutors laid out the foundation of their allegations while defense attorneys pushed back hard against the state’s theory.

During those earlier hearings, prosecutors argued they believed the evidence pointed toward criminal responsibility, while the defense repeatedly characterized the case as built too heavily on assumptions and speculation.

[{"type":"text","text":"That back-and-forth carried into the trial."}]

Over six days, attorneys questioned witnesses, picked apart investigative decisions and dug into forensic details as jurors heard two very different versions of what happened inside the Ericksons’ home that night in November 2024.

At times, objections and disagreements between the attorneys slowed testimony as both sides argued over wording, evidence and how far witnesses should be allowed to go in their answers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then in Tuesday, jurors reached a unanimous conclusion: not guilty."}]

"It's hard to know what resonated most," said Fleener, "but we hope they sensed that we presented our case with honesty and integrity." 

The acquittal means Erickson will not face criminal punishment in connection with the case.

"This case has taken an emotional toll on all involved, and we hope the families and community can begin to heal," Fleener added. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Friend Calls Verdict 'So Disappointing'"}]

Among the witnesses called during the trial was Alison Penny, who said she had known Tennille Erickson “her whole life.”

Penny traveled from Jackson to Kemmerer expecting to testify early in the week, believing she would likely take the stand early in the trial. Instead, she and her husband spent much of the week holed up in a motel waiting for her to take the stand, which was pushed to Thursday.

“It’s been one of the most stressful, gut-wrenching things I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. 

“Now to have this be the outcome, I’m just so disappointed,” she added after learning Tuesday night that jurors had acquitted Erickson. 

“She was an excellent mother, she was an immaculate homemaker, a good friend, and she is missed,” Penny said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Death By Blunt Force Trauma"}]

alleged the case stemmed from a drunken argument between Jared and Tennille Erickson at their Star Valley Ranch home. 

According to court documents filed in the case, Jared Erickson called 911 on Nov. 17 and reported finding his wife unresponsive in a bedroom with blood and vomit on the bed.

Investigators later alleged Tennille Erickson spent much of the following day secluded in the room after the couple argued the night before while drinking.

Court records said Tennille sent her husband a photo showing bruising and swelling on her face along with a text asking whether she should “send these around.” 

Prosecutors also pointed to messages Tennille allegedly sent to a friend claiming her husband had beaten her.

Responding deputies and medical personnel observed bruising on Tennille Erickson’s forehead, eye and torso when they arrived at the home. Prosecutors later argued those injuries were consistent with blunt-force trauma and not an accidental fall, according to the affidavit.

Defense attorneys, however, maintained Tennille Erickson struggled with alcoholism and health issues, and argued her injuries could have resulted from falls or other non-criminal causes. 

Court records indicated Jared Erickson told investigators the couple had a volatile relationship and both had been drinking before the argument.

After a roughly seven-month investigation, Erickson was charged with manslaughter in May 2025. A year later, he maintains his innocence and has been cleared of criminal charges. 

Lincoln County Courthouse Kemmerer 7 25 23

<title>Lincoln County Jury Finds Star Valley Man Not Guilty In Wife’s Death | Cowboy State Daily</title>

After a six-day trial that spanned the Memorial Day weekend, a Lincoln County jury on Tuesday found Jared Erickson not guilty in the death of his wife. "This case has taken an emotional toll on all involved," said his defense attorney. 

Lincoln County Jury Finds Star Valley Man Not Guilty In Wife’s Death

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Law Enforcement

A Cheyenne-based church, barbershop and advocacy group have filed a legal challenge against Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak, claiming the sheriff bypassed the public process 

 three agreements, “unilaterally,” with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Andrew Malone filed the challenge Tuesday in the Laramie County District Court for Wyoming, along with local attorney Elizabeth B. Lance, on behalf of Juntos, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne, and Drew’s Barbershop.

The complaint asks for “declaratory judgment” against Kozak, meaning the plaintiffs want the court to say that they’re correct under the law and Kozak is wrong. 

It also asks the court to hold Kozak’s three agreements with ICE as unlawful and block them permanently, as well as grant “any other relief that the Court deems just and equitable.”

Kozak’s office has three agreements with ICE, which the agencies call 287(g) agreements. 

One lets jail officials investigate inmates for potential immigration violations. Another lets the sheriff’s deputies act as immigration task force agents and investigate federal immigration violations while they’re out enforcing laws. And another lets the Laramie County Detention Center house detainees for ICE.

Kozak signed all three agreements last May, the complaint says. His agency has 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Truck Around"}]

The sheriff’s office grabbed headlines in April when it announced it had caught 46 illegal commercial truck drivers in its latest “

And in April, the sheriff’s office logged the greatest number of immigration arrests in the country of any local or state law enforcement agency, the complaint relates from a 

The ACLU’s complaint says Kozak didn’t submit these agreements to the Laramie County Clerk or get written permission from the Laramie County Commission to enter them or spend money on them. It says state law requires both.

“The Laramie County Board of Commissioners never debated, voted on, adopted a resolution, passed a resolution, or otherwise officially sanctioned Sheriff Kozak’s decision to enter any of the three 287(g) agreements or to incur the expenses associated with the agreements,” says the complaint, adding that Kozak’s office spent about $75,000 on immigration expenses from Sept. 1, 2025, to Jan. 31, 2026.

It also says Kozak bypassed the Wyoming Administrative Procedures Act, which requires agencies to give the public 45 days’ notice of substantive rules changes, and must afford any group of 25 or more people the opportunity to hold a hearing on those changes.  

“Wyoming sheriffs do not have limitless authority,” the complaint says.

Cowboy State Daily left Kozak a voicemail Wednesday and will update this 

[{"type":"text","text":"ICE did not immediately respond to a Wednesday morning email inquiry."}]

Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee confirmed in a Wednesday phone call that, “We have no agreements that have been submitted for 287(g) agreements to our office, or on file with our office.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Barber Deported To Nicaragua"}]

Drew’s barbershop lost an employee because Laramie County Sheriff’s Office deputies worked together with ICE to deport the employee to Nicaragua, the lawsuit says.

” Carlos Montes had been working at Drew’s Barbershop for six months when a Laramie County Sheriff’s deputy pulled him over for an inoperable headlight, the complaint says. 

It adds that the deputy then used the authority one of the three ICE agreements reportedly conferred to arrest Montes over his immigration status.

The document says Montes lacked a criminal history, and that his partner was pregnant at the time.

His family and employer navigated “confusing and contradictory information” to find him, the lawsuit alleges, and they eventually learned he’d been deported to Nicaragua.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Juntos"}]

The complaint says Juntos, a nonprofit group that advocates for immigrants and marginalized communities, was cheated of the chance to comment ahead of the three contracts’ adoption, and that it’s had to adjust its activities and budgeting because of them.

“Juntos has begun to host events online rather than in person in response to the community’s fear of being detained under the 287(g) agreements while traveling to or attending these events,” says the complaint. “This prevents the organization from creating the kind of connections and relationships with community members that require face-to-face interactions.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Church"}]

The complaint says the Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne has had to redirect $4,000 of its charity money and $6,000 in food and supplies to support people impacted by the sheriff’s agreements. 

The church formed the Friends of Immigrants Responding Ethically (FIRE) ministry for this cause, the document says.

All three plaintiffs allege they would have participated in the public process for adopting the agreements, had one unfolded.

Kozak and deputies ICE 5 27 26

<title>ACLU Helps Church, Nonprofit Group Sue Laramie County Sheriff Over ICE Agreements | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The ACLU is helping a Cheyenne-based church, barbershop and nonprofit group sue Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak over his three agreements with ICE. “Wyoming sheriffs do not have limitless authority,” the complaint says.

ACLU Helps Church, Nonprofit Group Sue Laramie County Sheriff Over ICE Agreements

A local woman is suing the Green River Police Department and Wyoming Department of Family Services officials on claims she 

 a malicious child abuse prosecution last year. She was arrested for DUI one day before her lawsuit was filed. 

 to wake her 5-year-old sister Annabelle, who lay on their babysitter's couch in Kemmerer with her pulse fading after a brutal beating.

Annabelle died hours later from injuries the girls’ babysitter, Cheri Marler, inflicted on her with her hands, feet, and a wooden spoon.

 more than a year later, and a judge sentenced Marler to life in prison without parole.

Investigators at the time observed numerous injuries on the 4-year-old as well, court documents say. 

 with her foster mother Vallory Dodson, and Dodson’s husband.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dodson was not involved in the Kemmerer incident. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bruises And A Black Eye"}]

An evidentiary affidavit filed in December 2024 in Sweetwater County Circuit Court says the girl’s teacher in Green River voiced concerns that autumn about bruises, a black eye covered with thick makeup, and a broken arm sustained by the then-kindergarten-age girl.

The girl told Green River Police Department Detective Martha Holzgrafe that November that she’d tripped while walking. She also said she’d been hurt 

pushed on the playground, the affidavit says.

About five weeks later, the girl gave Holzgrafe another interview and said Dodson had grabbed her by the ribs and thrown her to the ground. 

By then, says a court filing from Dodson's counsel, the state had placed the girl in her teacher's home. 

Sweetwater County Chief Criminal Deputy Attorney Micaela Lira charged Dodson with felony child abuse Dec. 20, 2024, and police arrested Dodson, who was reportedly 

Lira asked the court to dismiss the charge permanently the following June. 

She says she did so to guard against re-traumatizing the child by making her testify. 

“While preparing for trial, the state met with multiple individuals, witnesses, support members for the alleged victim, and the alleged victim herself,” wrote Lira in the June 5, 2025, motion to the Sweetwater County District Court. “

"After consultations with the alleged victim’s current caregivers (I find) any form of testifying in this matter would be detrimental to the 

 of the alleged victim and may (undo) the growth and healing she has 

District Court Judge Suzannah Robinson granted Lira’s request and dismissed the case the next day.

Lira reiterated her point in a Tuesday interview, telling Cowboy State Daily that the girl was emphatic about not testifying, “because if she did, it would bring back all the memories of what happened to her when she lived there.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe echoed that."}]

“What we put in the motion is accurate,” he said. “It wasn’t something we did lightly. There are rare occasions where that’s actually the case — where testifying is absolutely worse than what would have happened (otherwise). You know, than getting justice in this particular case.”

The prosecutors filed that motion to dismiss the charge about one year before the Wyoming Legislature passed a law allowing children in cases of violence to testify via a video link and bring comfort objects or a therapy dog into the courtroom with them.  

Now Dodson is suing the city of Green River, the Wyoming Department of Family Services, and various officials, saying authorities undertook her arrest and prosecution without probable cause and violated her rights.

Her civil complaint alleges a counterpoint to Lira’s motion, saying that, at least in DFS’s administrative handling of the incident, the child abuse case against Dodson lacked substance. 

The complaint says investigators didn’t request the girl’s medical records until months after filing the charge, and that multiple doctors opined that the girl’s broken arm was consistent with an injury sustained from falling.

The expert Dodson hired in her own case, Dr. Wade Jensen, reportedly said the break was most consistent with “a fall from a standing height.” 

The complaint says the emergency room doctor who'd tended the girl's broken arm did not report any abuse.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Little Did He Know"}]

Dodson’s attorney Jason Gay filed the civil complaint on her behalf in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on May 11.

Gay didn’t know at the time, he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday, that Dodson had been arrested on suspicion of driving drunk with a toddler in her car one day earlier.

“That was a coincidence in timing,” said Gay Tuesday. “The lawsuit had been pending for a while.”

He’d sent the state and the city drafts of the complaint before its filing, and before that arrest, Gay added.

As for the DUI charge, Gay noted that his client is 30, saw her now-dropped child abuse case spread via the media, and after a “long, drawn-out process… ultimately dismissed.”

He pointed to her relative lack of criminal history before the felony case was filed and the media attention followed. 

“And I think you’re seeing the impact that that can have on a person,” Gay added.

Dodson remained in the Sweetwater County Detention Center on a $30,000 bond as of Tuesday, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. Court documents claim she rear-ended a Toyota 4Runner while driving drunk in Rock Springs.

A woman in the 4Runner was temporarily hospitalized, and Dodson at first faced the felony of DUI causing a serious bodily injury – which carries a penalty of up to a decade in prison.

But Lira dropped that charge upon the realization that the victim’s injuries weren't serious enough to carry the charge, court documents say.

Still, Dodson faces three remaining charges of DUI with a child passenger, improperly buckling a child under 9 and following another vehicle too closely.

Dodson pleaded not guilty to those three charges May 20. She could face up to a year in prison and fines if convicted.

The alleged crash happened two days after Dodson pleaded guilty for breach of peace – in a case where she was originally charged in March with domestic battery, on claims she attacked her husband with his wristwatch after an argument about his inability to cook quinoa.

She had received six months' unsupervised probation in that case, with the threat of jail time if she failed probation.  

Dodson’s lawsuit accuses Green River Police Department officials of 

It accuses DFS officials of exacerbating that detention by disregarding evidence that didn’t support “their theory of abuse,” and it accuses investigators from both agencies of advancing a malicious prosecution against Dodson.

It also accuses DFS officials of abuse of process and violating Dodson’s rights.

It accuses officials from both agencies of conspiring against Dodson to interfere with her imminent adoption of the girl.

The civil complaint says Dodson took the 6-year-old girl to the emergency room on Oct. 17, 2024, due to pain in the girl’s right arm.

At that time, the girl had indicated another child at school pulled her arm, the complaint says. Dodson had been the girl’s foster parent and was finalizing her adoption of both that girl and the girl’s other, surviving sister.

The complaint says the doctor diagnosed the girl with an arm fracture. Because Dodson was a foster parent, the doctor reportedly contacted DFS to tell the agency about the diagnosis and gain authorization to perform a surgery on the girl.

One month later, Holzgrafe responded to the elementary school to investigate the girl’s black eye.

The girl said her eye was injured while she was playing with a dog, “and the Wyoming Department of Family Services later confirmed this to be the case,” the document says.

[{"type":"text","text":"School staff also told Holzgrafe about the girl’s October arm injury."}]

Both the girl and Dodson said the girl had injured her arm while walking home from the bus.

“Holzgrafe chose not to preserve the video and it was deleted by the school district,” the complaint alleges.

For a few weeks after the judge dismissed Dodson’s criminal case, Wyoming was still waging administrative child protection proceedings against her, court documents say.

But that ended that August when DFS declared its investigators’ findings “unsubstantiated,” the complaint adds. 

Dodson’s lawsuit accuses six people, all in their official capacities, of wrongdoing, as well as the city of Green River.

[{"type":"text","text":"Those six are:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS Director Korin Schmidt"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Green River Police Chief Shaun Sturlaugson"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• DFS social worker Victoria Collett"}]

A Green River woman is suing police and child protection officials for malicious prosecution. Prosecutors charged her with child abuse, then dismissed the charge seven months later, saying they did not want to re-traumatize the child in court.

Kathleen Vandeventer