Wyoming News Briefs

Former Little League treasurer accused of stealing nearly $30K pleads guilty to felony theft

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Campbell County man accused of stealing nearly $30,000 from Gillette Little League while he was the club’s treasurer has pleaded guilty to felony theft.

Rory Geis, 40, reached a plea agreement June 16 in which he agreed to plead guilty to felony theft. The prosecution agreed to dismiss a second count of felony theft.

In exchange for the guilty plea, the state recommends a suspended four- to six-year sentence with a 30-day split sentence to be served in jail and five years of supervised probation.

The deal also calls for Geis to pay $2300.75 in restitution to Gillette Little League.

A former treasurer for Gillette Little League, Geis was arrested in January on two counts of felony theft for stealing $28,867 from the organization in 2019 and 2020.

On June 7, the president of Gillette Little League, Troy Stevens, and Mike Leisy, the Little League vice president, met with Geis to go over the financials. 

Geis said he made a mistake by using his card when he shouldn’t have, and he was willing to write a check for “a couple grand” to Gillette Little League. When they confronted him about the total amount (at least $30K) missing from the account, Geis went into “a panic,” Leisy said, and Geis resigned from his position, according to court documents.

Detectives looked at bank statements and Little League registrations and noticed numerous withdrawals from Geis’ card. They discovered several withdrawals from the bank account through Geis’ card in 2019 and 2020 that did not coincide with scheduled Little League events.

Detectives also looked at the Little League registration forms, which showed that $59,980 in registration fees were collected in 2020. But the amount deposited that year was $41,634, a difference of $18,346.

Man gets 7-10 years in prison for slitting man’s throat

EVANSTON (WNE) — South Carolina resident John Hanley was convicted and sentenced in the Third District Court on Thursday, June 16, for the 2021 stabbing of Patrick Grieff. 

An ostensibly polite gathering was underway at a local bar in the early morning of Saturday, Dec. 11, when Hanley approached Grieff from behind and slashed his throat with a pocketknife. 

According to an affidavit, the Evanston Police Department responded to a 911 call at 2:55 a.m. which reported “a male suspect stabbing people” at the Lincoln Highway Tavern. 

Officers Zachary Marler and Eric Solie arrived to witness a bartender restraining Hanley while Grieff was lying on the ground grasping his neck with both hands. 

Bartender Andrea White reported that the two men were long-haul truckers and had been present at the bar for several hours before the incident, playing dice and speaking with the owner of the bar, Michael Kindler. 

White said she had not observed any conflict between the men; however, she saw Hanley attack Grieff, putting his arm around Grieff’s throat and slashing with a knife.

White, Kindler and Grieff agreed that the attack was sudden and seemingly unprovoked, with Grieff claiming he had purchased a drink for Hanley at some earlier point. 

Hanley was charged with first-degree attempted murder and aggravated assault and battery.

On Thursday, June 16, Hanley pleaded no contest to aggravated assault and battery. An attempted murder charge was dropped in the plea agreement. 

He was sentenced to 7-10 years in prison and restitution of $,354 and was remanded to the Uinta County Detention Facility to await transportation to a penal institution designated by the Wyoming Department of Corrections. 

Man hospitalized after 30-mile-long high-speed chase with deputies

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 38-year-old man was taken to the hospital after he crashed his car while leading deputies on a high-speed chase on Highway 59 Friday morning.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday, police pulled over a 2017 Chevy Malibu on Highway 59 near Interstate 90 after seeing it run through two stop signs. The driver showed signs of being very drunk, and police asked him to step out of the car, said Police Lt. Jason Marcus.

The man then drove off, heading south on Highway 59 at speeds of more than 100 mph. The police department did not pursue, Marcus said.

The Sheriff’s Office began pursuing the man near the intersection of Highway 59 and Southern drive. During the chase, the man reached speeds of 130 mph, Undersheriff Quentin Reynolds said. The pursuit lasted for nearly 30 miles.

The man lost control of his car on Highway 59 just south of the Breene Road. It left the road and rolled multiple times. The man was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries. His blood alcohol content was 0.22%, Reynolds said.

The man was left in the care of the hospital. Arrest warrants will be sought for eluding, reckless driving and driving under the influence, Reynolds said. The police also are seeking to charge the man for eluding and the two stop sign violations.

One dead, four injured in single car crash south of Rock Springs 

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — A 15-year-old was killed on Sunday, June 19, in a car accident around 2:47 a.m. at milepost 506 on US 191 south of Rock Springs. 

According to a press release from the Wyoming Highway Patrol, a 2006 Nissan Altima was heading north on US 191 when the driver could not maintain staying in the travel, causing the vehicle to exit the west side of the road and roll over. 

There were five passengers in the vehicle: two adults and three juveniles, according to the press release. 

The driver of the vehicle was identified as 18-year-old Jaquan T. Lyons Smith of Rock Springs. In addition to Lyons Smith, there was an adult passenger and has been identified as Gaige D. Olsen of Rock Springs. 

Lyons Smith and the three juveniles in the vehicle were not wearing seatbelts, the press release stated. 

Lyons Smith, Olsen and one juvenile passenger were transported to the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County for injuries sustained in the crash. One juvenile was transported by medical helicopter to the University of Utah for injuries from the crash. 

The third juvenile has been identified as the 15-year-old occupant who was fatally injured. 

Impairment, speed and driver inattention are being investigated as possible contributing factors. 

This was the 42nd fatality on Wyoming’s roadways in 2022.

In Wyoming last year, U.S parks got 8.6M visitors

CHEYENNE (WNE) — National parks in Wyoming last year garnered 8.59 million visitors, who spent some $1.14 billion in the state, the National Park Service has reported. 

Such tourist spending rose from $859 million in 2020, which itself was a decline from $924 million the previous year. 

A new NPS report shows that this most recent visitor spending resulted in 15,164 jobs. 

The agency said the peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey economists. 

Wyoming has several national parks. 

One of them, Yellowstone National Park, has been partly closed due to record flooding. Yellowstone can get several million visitors during a typical summer. 

More details on the new report, including information by state, is online at nps. gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.