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Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Colorado man wanted on 78 felony child exploitation charges was arrested Tuesday while working at a Saratoga sawmill, where authorities say he had been living and working for about five weeks before investigators tracked him to Carbon County.

Joshua Frasier, born in 1982, was taken into custody without incident after Saratoga Police Chief John Moore received a call from a Montrose County, Colorado, investigator around 12:30 p.m.

The investigator told Moore authorities received information that Frasier was working at Saratoga Forest Management, a sawmill on the south side of town.

Moore confirmed the felony warrant, obtained Frasier's driver's license photograph and asked a Carbon County Sheriff's Office deputy to assist with the arrest.

About 50 minutes later, the officers arrived at the mill and arrested Frasier while he was on the job.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He was cooperative through the arrest,\" Moore told Cowboy State Daily."}]

Frasier was transported to the Carbon County Detention Center, where he was booked on the Colorado warrant.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Living At Campground"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"A warrant for Frasier's arrest was issued July 10 in Montrose County."}]

During the arrest, Frasier told officers he had been in the Saratoga area for about five weeks and had been staying at the Saratoga Lake Campground, Moore said.

Frasier also told officers they had previously gone to his parents' home in Montrose looking for him. According to Moore, Frasier said he believed that visit was related to a family-services matter and did not appear to know a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

According to court records, Frasier is charged with 50 counts of procurement of a child for sexual exploitation and 28 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

Colorado law defines procurement of a child for sexual exploitation as "causing, inducing, enticing or permitting a child to engage in sexually exploitative conduct for the production of sexually exploitative material."

The charging documents filed in Wyoming do not describe the allegations supporting the case.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Waived Extradition"}]

Frasier appeared Wednesday in Carbon County Circuit Court, where he waived his extradition hearing.

By waiving extradition, Frasier agreed to return to Colorado without contesting the transfer in Wyoming court.

Colorado authorities now have 10 days to take custody of him and transport him back to Montrose County to face the charges.

Cowboy State Daily sought the arrest affidavit and other investigative records to learn more about the allegations in the Colorado case.

The Montrose County courthouse said the affidavit could only be obtained in person.

Ed Thompson, records supervisor for the Montrose County Sheriff's Office, declined to release investigative records, telling Cowboy State Daily the agency does not release documents that "may hinder a case getting prosecuted."

As a result, the allegations underlying the 78 felony charges were not immediately available Friday.

A comment from the Montrose County District Attorney's Office was not returned. 

Saratoga town sign 2 6 29 23

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

<title>Colorado Man Wanted On 78 Child Exploitation Charges Arrested At Saratoga Sawmill | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Colorado Man Wanted On 78 Child Exploitation Charges Arrested At Saratoga Sawmill

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Courts

A Green River man who manipulated four underage children into performing sex acts on each other claims he didn’t entice the kids into “explicit sexual conduct” and that the 21-30 years he got in prison is cruel and unusual punishment.

The Wyoming Supreme Court disagrees in a Thursday ruling denying William J. Duncan’s appeal.

The justices didn’t buy Duncan’s legal arguments that even though he enticed the children to digitally penetrate and use sex toys on each other, that didn’t meet the legal standard for “explicit sexual conduct,” according to the ruling.

They also said, given that Duncan, 51, could have drawn a prison sentence of between 30 and 72 years, the 21-30 he got isn’t “cruel.”

“We therefore do not need to consider whether Mr. Duncan’s sentence shocks the moral sense of the people, and we decline his invitation to compare his sentence to those in other criminal cases,” the Thursday decision says.

A third prong of Duncan’s appeal also was denied by the high court — that the jury may not have been unanimous on some of his charges.

Duncan was convicted in July 2025 by a Sweetwater County jury of six counts of sexual exploitation of a child, two of endangering children, and one count of unlawful contact without bodily injury.

Because there were four child victims in the case, the county District Court judge imposed four sentences, to run consecutively. That includes three 7-to-10-year sentences and five years of supervised probation after prison.

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

The convictions stem from events that unfolded in about 2021 and 2022, when Duncan encouraged a pre-teen child into multiple sexual acts, some with an older teen and some with two other preteens, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Duncan furnished sex toys and alcohol to at least one child as well, according to an evidentiary affidavit Sweetwater County Criminal Chief Deputy Attorney Micaela Lira compiled from the notes of Green River Police Department Detective Martha Holzgrafe and Sgt. Lars Nandrup.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Duncan did not testify at his trial."}]

The jury deliberated four hours after the trial ended, Sweetwater County Attorney Daniel Erramouspe 

he charging mechanism in Duncan’s case was unique, Erramouspe added.

“We charged him the statute that’s usually applied to child pornography (cases),” he said, referring to child sexual exploitation. “But the facts of the case fit it.”

Wyoming doesn't have a "grooming" statute, though the Legislature discussed passing one earlier in 2025. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Yes,  That Was ‘Explicit’"}]

The investigation started in January 2025, when a counselor alerted Green River Police Department investigators to potential criminal activity.

The victim spoke to police and gave a forensic interview that implicated Duncan in sexual enticement and grooming, and physical violence, the affidavit says.

Police also reviewed text messages between Duncan and the victim in which Duncan demanded the victim delete their communications.

Other text messages show the pair discussing alcohol and the child talking about being drunk; and others show Duncan discussing with the child the “practicing” of sexual acts, the document says.

The Wyoming Supreme Court justices also point out some of the specifics behind Duncan’s convictions, including how he groomed the child and tried to hide the behavior from other adults.

That’s included in what the court cites in dismissing Duncan’s argument that the acts the children performed on themselves weren’t “explicit” conduct, according to Wyoming law.

“Mr. Duncan’s conduct of encouraging the Minor Child to digitally penetrate and use sexual devices on (another minor child) constitutes ‘explicit sexual conduct,’ and the convictions … are supported by sufficient evidence,” Thursday’s opinion says.

Duncan also unsuccessfully argued in his appeal that there wasn’t enough evidence to support that he “enticed” minor children into sex acts, according to the opinion.

William Duncan and Green River 7 31 26

<title>Supreme Court Says 30 Years Green River Man Got For Exploiting Kids Isn't Cruel | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Green River man who manipulated four underage children into performing sex acts on each other claims that the 21-30 years he got in prison is cruel and unusual punishment. The Wyoming Supreme Court disagrees in a Thursday denial of his appeal.

Supreme Court Says 30 Years Green River Man Got For Exploiting Kids Isn't Cruel

A Texas truck driver accused of going on an angry rampage near Greybull, cussing out a coworker, then trying to run down three men while giving them the finger out the window of his semitrailer, could face up to 30 years in prison.

William Eric Vauter, 58, remains in the Big Horn County Detention Center after being bound over to district court Wednesday to face three felony charges of aggravated assault and battery, according to court records.

Vauter, who is from Houston, Texas, had been in a crash on County Road 26 outside Greybull, Wyoming, two days before and was visibly angry and hostile to a coworker and tow truck driver who had responded to retrieve his damaged semi, reports Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nathan Kreider in an affidavit of probable cause to support the charges.

He repeatedly cursed at the other men — and Kreider, who had responded to the scene to provide traffic control — and was belligerent after he nearly ran down the three other men in a semi doing at least 60 mph while barreling through the accident recovery scene, Kreider says in his affidavit.

“I observed a semi, white in color, travelling southbound from the bentonite plant towards our recovery scene at a high rate of speed,” the deputy wrote. “I started waving down the truck to slow down through the recovery area.”

Kreider also set the scene, explaining the tow truck had its flashing lights on, cones were out in the road to section off the area of the recovery, along with his emergency vehicle with lights flashing. Also, Kreider was in the road attempting to direct traffic.

“I was in the middle of the southbound lane in clear view of the driver, waving my arms above my head to get his attention,” Kreider wrote. “The semi did not reduce speed and continued towards the scene at a high rate of speed.”

The deputy says he yelled at the other two men to get out of the way, as they also were in the path of the semi.

“I attempted again to slow the semi down, and he did not comply,” the affidavit continues. “By that time, the semi was well within our recovery scene. It appeared that the driver had complete disregard for the safety of myself and the recovery crew.”

That’s when Kreider noticed something else that indicated the driver allegedly deliberately tried to hit them.

“I quickly looked at the driver and observed his left hand out the driver’s window giving the recovery workers the middle finger,” he wrote.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Cussing And Middle Fingers"}]

The table was set for the apparent road rage tantrum two days prior on July 20, when Vauter was driving another semitrailer on County Road 26 and was involved in a crash, disabling his truck.

On July 22, a man from a tow recovery service and a coworker of Vauter's from his trucking company, Marquardt Skyway Transportation, were working to remove the damaged truck, Kreider wrote in his affidavit.

The coworker had hauled another truck with him for Vauter to drive back to South Dakota after the crashed semi was secured.

While the coworker and tow driver worked, Vauter was angry with his coworker for reasons not described in the affidavit.

The coworker told the deputy that Vauter “was cussing him out off and on while they were working on the semi,” the affidavit says. “(He) stated that Vauter was in the spare semi that he had hauled to the scene for Vauter to drive back to South Dakota.”

A little later, Kreider wrote that he “observed (the coworker) go to the white semi and tell Vauter he could hook up to a flatbed trailer. Vauter exited his truck and immediately started screaming, ‘f*** you, f*** you’ and giving (the coworker) the middle finger on both hands.”

Vauter did hook the flatbed trailer to the white semi he was driving that day, and he left the scene going northbound toward the nearby bentonite plant, the affidavit says.

For the next 20 minutes, the other men worked to get the crashed truck secured.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Still Mad"}]

Then all heck broke loose as a white semi came racing back toward them from the same direction Vauter had left, the affidavit says.

As the other two men dove to avoid being hit by the semi driven by Vauter, Kreider reports that it came within a foot of making him a hood ornament.

After twice trying to stop the semi, “I then attempted to get out of the way to the west side of the roadway as the semi sped through the scene at an estimated speed of 60 mph or higher,” he wrote. “The semi came within approximately 1 foot of hitting me.

“As the semi passed me, I was close enough to feel the heat coming off the semi and a wall of displaced air sucking me towards the passing semi.”

After making sure the other two men were OK, Kreider wrote that he got into his patrol vehicle and pursued the semi, finally catching up and stopping it about 1.5 miles down the highway.

“After the semi stopped, the driver got out of the cab and aggressively walked towards my patrol truck,” Kreider wrote. “I recognized the driver to be Vauter.”

He got out and met Vauter at the back of his trailer, where the Texas man continued to be agitated, the affidavit says.

“He was upset about the traffic stop and argued that he did not see the emergency vehicles and that he did not speed through the scene,” according to the affidavit. “He did state that he was ‘going the speed limit of 65 mph’ through the scene.”

That’s when Kreider says he informed Vauter that the speed limit on that road is 50 mph.

Vauter also “denied almost hitting myself as well as the two other recovery workers,” he wrote.

Vauter remains in jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond, and a date for his arraignment in Big Horn County District Court hasn’t yet been set.

Each of the three aggravated assault and battery charges is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

That puts a potential maximum sentence, if convicted, at up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $30,000.

William Eric Vautner 7 31 26

<title>Texas Trucker Accused Of Nearly Mowing Down 3 Men In Angry Rampage Near Greybull | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Texas truck driver is accused of going on an angry rampage near Greybull and trying to run down three men. That includes a Big Horn County deputy, who “observed his left hand out the driver’s window giving the middle finger” as he nearly hit them.

Texas Trucker Accused Of Nearly Mowing Down 3 Men In Angry Rampage Near Greybull

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily political columnist, Rod Miller.

Rod Miller

Opinion

CSD Columnists

Alexis de Toqueville, a French observer during the formative years of our republic, called us “The great experiment in democracy.” 

He saw that our Founders didn’t create a stagnant system, but rather a dynamic nation that is always growing and changing as we try new ideas. 

Picking up on de Toqueville’s metaphor, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called America a “great laboratory” in which different experiments in self-government are tested, to see what succeeds and what doesn’t. 

Seen in that light, we are a nation of experimenters driven by a curiosity to find out what works best for us, and our history is record of the results of those experiments.

And I think it was Sigmund Freud, I’ll paraphrase, who offered the sage political advice that the definition of insanity is repeating the same experiment over and over, expecting a different result. 

While we’re on the subject of political experiments, imagine that we’re back in chemistry class and a mad scientist, dressed in a red blazer instead of a lab coat, is lecturing the class. 

He says, “Class, today we’re gonna do the Freedom Caucus experiment.”

He looks at his phone for instructions, then grabs a Wyoming-shaped test tube and starts tossing in ingredients from weird little vials and bottles. 

The mad scientist in the red coat tells us, “For this experiment, we’ll need a mixture of caustic populism, fake grassroots, some tincture of fear-mongering and a big dose of centralized control mixed with faux religious zeal. 

Then we’ll add some forced patriotism, political opportunism, and stir in some scorn for small communities and a whole bottle of distilled self-righteousness. 

To give it bite, we’ll add some acidic divisiveness, concentrated hubris and a dash of tribalism.

The rest of the ingredients are secret and available only from national Freedom Caucus bigwigs in Washington, D.C., and I’m sworn never to reveal what they are. Now, let’s see what happens when we heat if up!”

The redcoated mad scientist reads his texted instructions, stirs the mixture and cooks it over a bunsen burner. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The concoction begins to bubble and fizz. "}]

Finally it blows up with a loud plop, like an exploding skunk, and the lab is filled with a miasma of sulfurous yellow smoke that burns the eyes and smells like brimstone and buzzard puke.

The lab walls are dripping with a toxic goo that will take years to clean up. 

The mad scientist stands in front of the class, all his hair singed off and a look of shocked surprise coupled with glee on his bald face.

Evidence of the failed experiment litters the lab floor, still fizzing and bubbling – a scorched campaign check from the Checkgate scandal here, a pool of chemtrail paranoia there. 

Under the desk is a smoldering pile of UFO panic, still wearing a crumpled tinfoil Stetson. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Smoke rises from a proposal to sell state land for a dollar an acre."}]

The ashes of of the hopes of schools, small towns and counties coat the windowsills. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Books are blasted off the library shelves. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Shards of shattered civil liberties are scattered hither and yon. "}]

The carcass of a dead legislative agenda twitches in a dark corner of the lab. 

Election certificates of Freedom Caucus legislators are smeared with hilarious DUI bodycam videos, concealed felony convictions in Colorado and political flip-flops worthy of a contortionist in a snake oil show. 

The right-wing "media outlets" that serve as the pep squads for the Freedom Caucus carry the stench of the failed experiment, and their microscopic audience shrinks with every new scandal. 

Windows and doors are thrown open to air out the lab. Just then the bell rings, announcing a new election, and we want nothing more than to go home and shower off the residue of this experiment gone hideously awry. 

But before we can step carefully across the slippery floor toward the door, the mad scientist in the red blazer whines, “Hey, the people voted for this! Who wants to try this same experiment again on 8/18/26? Maybe we’ll get a different result.”

Rod Miller can be reached at: RodsMillerWyo@yahoo.com

Rod miller headshot scaled

<title>Rod Miller: The Wyoming Freedom Caucus – Our Failed Experiment | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Imagine that we’re back in chemistry class and a mad scientist, dressed in a red blazer instead of a lab coat, is lecturing the class. He says, 'Class, today we’re gonna do the Freedom Caucus experiment.'"

Rod Miller: The Wyoming Freedom Caucus – Our Failed Experiment

Kerry Drake

A Colorado man has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of a 22-year-old passenger flung from his car after he crashed while trying to elude police at more than 100 mph on Clear Creek Parkway near Cheyenne. 

Both Colorado resident James K. Moore and another passenger from South Carolina were hospitalized. Christian Dawsey, 22, also from Colorado, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reports.

In addition to aggravated vehicular homicide, which can carry up to a 20-year sentence, Moore was charged in Laramie County Circuit Court on Thursday with aggravated assault, property destruction and defacement, reckless driving and attempting to elude police.

WHP Trooper Brandon Todd initially noticed that Moore, 26, did not have functioning taillights as he drove near Exit 7 

 in Cheyenne just after 11 p.m. July 23. In an affidavit, Todd wrote that the car appeared to be pulling over after the trooper activated his emergency lights while leaving the median.

The incident escalated quickly when Moore’s white Hyundai IONIQ 5 instead exited at West College Drive and Clear Creek Parkway, then quickly accelerated to flee southbound. Todd wrote that the vehicle was traveling more than 100 mph in a 45 mph zone, and he eventually saw Moore's car crash.

Moore failed to navigate a sharp left turn and continued straight, exiting the roadway and becoming airborne, Todd wrote.

"I saw what looked like a small explosion from the vehicle," the affidavit says, adding that he found the wreckage in the parking lot of Simon, a business at 6215 Clear Creek Parkway.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Thrown From Car"}]

He approached and found Moore “unconscious and unresponsive." A passenger later identified as the man from South Carolina was semi-conscious and had severe bruising on the right side of his face, Todd wrote.

"I ran through the parking lot and made my way to the vehicle, where I made contact with the driver, who was unconscious and unresponsive," the affidavit says, adding that he was identified as Moore from his Colorado driver's license.

 twice told Todd that he and Moore were the only two people in the car, while “Moore began itching his nose and would not respond to verbal stimuli,” according to the affidavit.

It was when he was walking back to his patrol car that Todd says he found Dawsey's body, and it was apparent he had been killed.

"I began walking back to my patrol car through the debris field and the path the vehicle took as it crashed through the parking lot," Todd's affidavit says. "I located the third occupant of the vehicle, who was laying on his stomach, face down, and had sustained injuries in the crash that were not compatible with life."

Todd said he identified a strong odor of a flavored alcoholic beverage while he attempted to talk to Moore and the other passenger, and later found a small red-and-clear alcoholic beverage in the driver’s side door cup holder.

Todd wrote that he found empty beer cans and smaller alcoholic containers called “shooters” as he walked through the debris field.

Both Moore and the South Carolina man were extricated from the vehicle at the scene by emergency medical responders. A blood sample was taken from Moore and he was read Wyoming’s Implied Consent Advisement.

Moore was flown to Colorado via LifeFlight for further care. The surviving passenger was transported by ground ambulance to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

Dawsey died at the scene, Todd wrote, adding that he was not wearing a seat belt. 

During the investigation, Todd said Dawsey’s grandparents notified the WHP dispatch that they had received a crash notification from his phone. 

While completing his inventory of the crash scene, Todd opened a backpack that contained a urine test and a sex toy.

On Monday, Todd noted that he had discovered from the Larimer County (Colorado) Probation Office that Moore was on probation for felony menacing with a real or simulated weapon and he was not allowed to come into Wyoming.

He also wrote that people on probation sometimes use fake urine for required drug testing.

High Speed crash WHP 7 30 26

<title>Colorado Man Charged In Death Of Passenger Thrown From His Car At 100 MPH | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Colorado man is charged in the death of a man flung from his car when it crashed in a Cheyenne parking lot while running from troopers at 100 mph. The passenger “sustained injuries in the crash that were not compatible with life,” a trooper reports.

Colorado Man Charged In Death Of Passenger Thrown From His Car At 100 MPH

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Nineteen Republican state leaders, including a former Wyoming governor, have endorsed Steve Friess for U.S. House, the candidate’s team told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

Friess is in the final three weeks of a fiery race for the Republican nomination to the House seat Rep. Harriet Hageman is leaving to run for U.S. Senate.

Of the 14 endorsers Cowboy State Daily was able to reach Thursday for interviews, all touted Friess’s merits. A minority of four specifically voiced a desire to see someone beat Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is one of Friess’s eight GOP opponents.

Former Gov. Jim Geringer said he’s endorsing Friess “because he’s the right guy.”

Geringer also pointed to Gray’s upbringing in California and said, “I don’t see him as being connected and aware enough of national issues to be able to handle what Steve Friess has already done.”

Friess has said that he organized a group of top Washington, D.C., attorneys to craft ready-made executive order proposals for President Donald Trump ahead of his first inauguration in 2017. The Friess family also kick-started Charlie Kirk’s group Turning Point USA and a host of other conservative groups and causes.

Gray was elected to the state Legislature in 2016 and served for six years. He was elected Secretary of State in 2022 and has repeatedly pushed the Legislature for election reform, resulting in the passage of several new election laws.

[{"type":"text","text":"Both men point to pro-life victories."}]

Gray and Friess also face state Senate President Bo Biteman, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, former legislator Keith Goodenough, singer/actor Richard Dodson, and military veterans David Giralt and Kevin Christensen.

[{"type":"text","text":"The primary election is Aug. 18."}]

“Steve has a lot of skill. ‘Hochma’ is the word in the Old Testament: wisdom,” said former legislator Nathan Winters. 

Winters said that wisdom manifests in Friess’s four children, whom he cast as well-educated and thoughtful.

“As I’ve watched Steve, he’s just a remarkable person to run for that office,” said Winters.

Winters runs a Christian-issues advocacy group, Wyoming Family Alliance. But he said he gives his endorsement in his private capacity, not in connection with any group.

Most of the endorsers matched Winters’ attitude of praise. A minority of four added negative comments about Gray.

“Oh, I mean I’m not going to get into personal attacks,” said former Senate President Tony Ross, a Republican from Cheyenne, when saying why he wants someone to beat Gray. “I mean I think it’s self-evident. Jeez-Louise.”

Former state Rep. Elaine Harvey, a Big Horn County Republican, went further. On the one hand, she praised Friess on a nuanced policy level, saying she agrees with his approaches to public-lands management, health insurance and energy policy.

On the other hand, Harvey said she’s “disgusted” with Gray, in particular for his recurring spats with Gov. Mark Gordon in state board meetings.

[{"type":"text","text":"The other endorsers are:"}]

The four who voiced specific desires to see someone beat Gray were Geringer, Ross, Harvey and Ron Micheli. The rest were silent on that topic, sticking to Friess’s merits.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Tired Class Of Political 1% Insiders’"}]

Gray in a Thursday text message called the endorsers a “tired class of political 1% insiders.”

“It’s not a surprise that Jackson Hole socialite Steve Friess is receiving the support of the same 1% insiders who want woke data centers and woke wind projects,” wrote Gray.

Not all of Friess’s endorsers have voiced a position on wind farms and data centers. Dockstader was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted against 

giving tax breaks to large data centers in 2010

Gray has come out against data centers, while Friess has said state and county governments – not Congress – should lead data center permitting decisions in ways that protect Wyomingites.

[{"type":"text","text":"Both men tout a pro-traditional-energy stance."}]

U.S. House candidate Steve Friess received 19 endorsements Thursday by Republican lawmakers, former legislators, energy industry leaders and Gov. Jim Geringer. Chuck Gray called them "a tired class of political 1% insiders" who support "woke wind projects."

Leonard "Lenny" Woods Hay, 51