Wyoming News Briefs

Neighbors object to re-opening of pig farm

WHEATLAND (WNE) — The pig farms east of Wheatland are causing controversy again. A new company wishes to use an old, closed down property belonging to Wyoming Premium Farms to open up a new farrowing facility where there once was a feeding facility. 

The Special Use Permit was submitted to the Platte County Zoning and Planning Board and was discussed at last week’s public meeting. 

The permit pertains to turning a feeding facility into a farrowing facility. Tearing down some buildings and adding new ones. Promising fewer pigs than before and, therefore, less odor to surrounding neighbors and the town. 

In the past there was litigation over the smell that permeated the area and the company was required to enact several measures to try and mitigate the problem. This went on for several years until the property was eventually shut down. 

Landowners Richard and Bonnie Johnson were there to present their objections and the history of the property and lawsuit. 

“We are not in opposition to the pig farm, we are in opposition to a site. This site hasn’t changed since we filed our legal business with it. The pig farm sits at about 4661 feet. To the east of it is a range of hills that go up to 4900 feet, our house sits at 4519 feet down the draw from this pig farm. So on calm, clear nights we get odor coming down the creek,” Richard explained. “We fought the odor from this thing for five years.”

The board decided to table the decision as the owner of the company was not able to attend the meeting due to weather.

Student charged as adult after shooting threat

LYMAN — A shooting threat in Lyman last week has resulted in felony and misdemeanor charges for a Lyman teen. 

Brady T. Dean allegedly made a threat against another student at Lyman High School and, according to Lyman Police Chief Kathy Adams, the suspect found himself housed in Sweetwater County Jail, as Uinta County doesn’t have adequate facilities to separate juveniles from adult offenders. 

Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson-Kallas said Dean is being charged as an adult.

Adams said again Wednesday the threat wasn’t directed at the school, but at one of the students, so the decision to close the school was deemed the best action. Adams also said no gun was involved but a threat of violence was made against an individual “whether it be at the school or somewhere else.”

According to the affidavit in support of the case, Lyman Police Officer Alan Kiefer arrested Dean at approximately 1:44 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9.

According to court documents, Dean is charged with three crimes, which include terroristic threats, and two counts of telephone calls in which he “threatened to commit a violent felony” and in which he threatened to “inflict injury or physical harm to the person.” 

According to court documents, Dean and another juvenile were to meet “in a large fight in the Mountain View area.” The affidavit also said a picture of Dean with a firearm had been posted on social media and the student threatened in this incident had received other threats from Dean.

Special prosecutor appointed in Wiley parole case

THERMOPOLIS (WNE) — A murder case from 1990 is coming up again, the James Michael Wiley case.

Wiley was convicted in 1990 on charges of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of his stepmother and three brothers at their home near Thermopolis and was sentenced to life in prison. He was 15 at the time of the deaths.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile sentenced to life in prison should have the opportunity for parole after serving 25 years.

Wiley has passed that point and is seeking parole under the Supreme Court ruling. 

A hearing on Wiley’s request is to be held in Hot Springs County on June 26. At the request of Hot Springs County Attorney Jill Logan, county commissioners have appointed a special prosecutor to the case, Thermopolis native Joey Blonigen.

Logan and Blonigen both believe the appeal for parole should be dismissed entirely.

Cody man charged with stealing dozens of guns

POWELL (WNE) — After helping install a new furnace in a Cody woman’s home last year, a local man is alleged to have secretly returned to take dozens of the guns in her basement.

The Park County Sheriff’s Office arrested Robert “Bobby” Jackson, 45, on a felony charge of aggravated burglary last week. Jackson is alleged to have stolen roughly 34 guns from a residence on Diamond Basin Road, southwest of Cody.

He remained in jail on Wednesday, with bail set at $50,000.

Although investigators believe the guns were stolen sometime in December, the case wasn’t reported to law enforcement until April 1.

In her initial call to the sheriff’s office, the woman said she believed more than 100 firearms might be missing, department logs say, but she later put together a list indicating that 34 weapons had been taken from her late husband’s collection.

The woman mentioned to Sgt. Chad McKinney that she’d shown the collection of firearms to a pair of workers from Big Horn Heating and Air Conditioning in December, when they installed a new furnace; one of those workers was Jackson.

Jackson is quoted in court documents as saying that, “I did not think she [the homeowner] would ever notice the guns were gone because of the [cluttered] house.” He said the woman didn’t care about the firearms, McKinney recounted in his statement.

“I thanked [Jackson] for his cooperation and telling me the truth,” McKinney wrote. “Jackson was then arrested and booked into the Park County Detention Center...”

Evanston schools approve concealed weapon policy again

EVANSTON (WNE) — Slightly more than one year after passing policy CKA to allow approved staff to carry concealed firearms on school district property, the Uinta County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees voted again to adopt the concealed carry rule at the Tuesday, April 9 regular board meeting. 

After several months of revisiting the rule and again soliciting public comments following a court ruling declaring the original policy null and void last fall, trustees voted unanimously in favor of the CKA “packet,” which included the rule itself and all attendant documents and forms, along with the district’s responses to public comments received. Trustee Russell Cox was not in attendance at the meeting. 

The vote clears the way for district staff to again apply for approval to carry concealed firearms in the workplace, which trustees have indicated they believe will be a deterrent to anyone considering acts of violence in Evanston schools. The rule in its entirety and all other associated documents are available to review on the district website. 

Former UW basketball player acquitted on assault charges

LARAMIE (WNE) — A former University of Wyoming basketball player Tuesday was acquitted of all charges stemming from an alleged altercation at a downtown Laramie bar late last year.

A six-person jury found Ny Redding not guilty of one count of simple battery and one count of simple assault following a daylong trial inside an Albany County circuit courtroom. The jury deliberated for roughly 30 minutes before reaching a verdict following a trial that saw the prosecution and defense call a combined 10 witnesses.

The most serious allegation made by prosecutors was that Redding struck a female University of Wyoming student, leaving her unconscious.

A senior point guard for the Cowboys last season, Redding started the first nine games before being suspended indefinitely after the Laramie Police Department cited Redding for disorderly conduct and inciting a fight during an altercation at Roxie’s on Grand in the wee hours of Dec. 9.

The state alleged that Redding struck UW student Molly Pickerill and left her unconscious — something Pickerill also claimed in an interview with the Star-Tribune following the alleged incident. Redding was also charged with misdemeanor assault based on allegations he pushed Jayce Kelley, one of Pickerill’s roommates.

Three witnesses called by the defense testified that they didn’t see Redding strike Pickerill. Each said it was Redding who was being attacked by other people there that night and that he was acting more in self-defense.

Bobby Watkins, the coach of Wyoming’s women’s rugby team who said he was at the bar celebrating a friend’s going-away party, testified that he didn’t know who struck Pickerill, but “I can tell you it wasn’t Ny,” he said.