Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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JACKSON — Several families are demanding accountability after they say they were victims of criminal misconduct at the hands of the Teton County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. In the last few months, various complaints about the county attorney’s office breaking the state’s restricted disclosure law have been filed with the Wyoming State Bar, Teton County Sheriff’s Office, Jackson Police Department and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. “The Teton County Attorney’s Office and anyone else working for the government who violated this...
JACKSON — When Kevin Hernandez denigrated the president in the direction of a man wearing a pro-Trump hat, he was met with a fist to his face and a criminal citation for picking a fight. The scuffle happened June 14 near Town Square on the sidelines of a peaceful racial justice protest. The incident brings up questions about the applicability of criminal provocation, a rarely used town ordinance. And the fallout of the fight ranges from regret over a missed opportunity for civil dialogue to First Amendment questions about what constitutes polit...
JACKSON — Despite their pleas for antler hunters to stay home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jackson Police Department and the Teton County Sheriff’s Office escorted 186 cars full of shed seekers to the National Elk Refuge early Friday morning. Friday marked the opening of Wyoming’s shed antler hunting season. “We’ve been wanting to come do this for years,” shed hunter Sam Simmons said. Simmons, 17, came over with some buddies from St. Anthony, Idaho, leaving home around 5 a.m. Thursday and arriving in Jackson early enough to be fourth in line...
JACKSON — Since early March the county’s top health official has been begging the state to support his restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus in Teton County. Emails obtained by the News&Guide through the Wyoming Public Records Act show a back and forth that became heated as Teton District Health Officer Dr. Travis Riddell pushed state officials to allow him to enact a stay-at-home order. Riddell initially sought the state’s blessing for a stay-at-home order narrowly tailored to just the most vulnerable people — seniors and those w...
JACKSON — Lorraine Adams didn’t suspect she had COVID-19 until she read that a symptom of the disease is losing your sense of taste and smell. That’s been an indication for many young and otherwise healthy Jackson Hole residents. “My heart just sank,” Adams said. Adams, 26, is one of several Teton County residents interviewed by the News&Guide this week who tested positive for coronavirus but had hardly any symptoms. Jameson Mitchell, 26, and Kyle Craighead Haynam, 35, also felt relatively fine. “I never had a fever or cough,” Jackson nativ...
JACKSON — The Wyoming Supreme Court says the Board of Coroner Standards doesn’t have the authority to investigate an elected coroner for misconduct. The final opinion, filed Jan. 8, stems from an ongoing dispute over Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue’s alleged misconduct during a May 2017 coroner’s inquest into Anthony Birkholz’s death. The jury in Blue’s inquest concluded the 31-year-old’s death could have been prevented. More specifically, the three jurors said Birkholz died “due to aspiration secondary to alcohol and 5-methoxy-DMT ingestio...
JACKSON — Jamie Mackay says he can’t get a fair trial in Teton County because he’s “a well-known public figure” and has been the subject of 36 newspaper articles in the Jackson Hole News&Guide over the past 12 years. Mackay, a Wilson developer and owner of Fireside Resorts Inc., is being sued over the deaths of his employees Victoriano Garcia-Perez and Juan Baez-Sanchez. The men suffocated in September 2018 after a trench they were working in collapsed. In the wrongful death complaint, representatives of the men say Mackay was negligent...
JACKSON — The Colorado police officer who held a Jackson teenager at gunpoint when he was running to the bus stop says the injuries he sustained from that mishap are his own fault. “Plaintiff’s injuries and damages, if any, were the result of plaintiff’s own negligent, intentional and/or unlawful conduct,” attorney Katye Brown stated in Vanessa Schultz’s answer to a civil rights lawsuit being brought against her. Gerardo Becerra, 18, filed a complaint against Schultz in May for assault, battery and false imprisonment. Schultz, 32, a police ag...
JACKSON — Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, has dismissed most claims that William Frey brought against several Teton County agencies. But the court is giving Frey until Aug. 5 to file amended complaints for the court to reconsider his case. Frey was trying to sue the town of Jackson, Teton County and Jackson Hole Airport for an interaction he had on March 12, 2018, while going through airport security. Frey refused “an invasive pat down search of his genitals” and said he was unlawfully arres...
JACKSON —A Connecticut man who refused an “invasive pat down search of his genitals” is suing the town of Jackson, Teton County and Jackson Hole Airport. Jackson police Officer Nate Karnes arrested William Frey on March 12, 2018, for violating security requirements. Frey, who has a vacation home in Jackson Hole and visits about twice a year, said his belt caused the Transportation Security Administration screening machine to alert. Frey, in his complaint filed by attorney Seth “Turtle” Johnson, said he volunteered to take off his belt but...
JACKSON — A couple suing for injuries their teenage son suffered during a 2017 “pond skim” accident argue that Snow King Mountain Resort was negligent, but the resort says it’s not liable. Teton County District Court Judge Timothy Day says the dispute will be up to a jury to decide. Day denied Snow King’s motion for summary judgment, which would have ended the suit. The teenage son, still a minor, is referred to as WDD in court documents. “WDD apparently understood certain risks of the pond skim event, having already participated on the day...
JACKSON — A teenager held at gunpoint last summer by an off-duty police officer who assumed he had committed a crime is suing her for violating his civil rights. In a complaint filed Thursday in Teton County District Court, Gerardo Becerra, 18, claims assault, battery, false imprisonment and outrage against Colorado police officer Vanessa Schultz. Schultz, 32, is employed by the Lakewood Police Department but was off duty and vacationing in Jackson in July 2018 when she heard a loud noise near Snow King Avenue and Flat Creek Drive. “Mr. Bec...
JACKSON — Some say death saved Bill Bricker from going to prison. But it also caused many questions that would normally be answered in a court of law to remain unresolved. The 94-year-old died in January 2015 while awaiting trial on accusations that he molested campers when he worked at Teton Valley Ranch Camp, based in Kelly at the time. His death ended the criminal case and left some victims without closure. “Bill Bricker died while under arrest, awaiting extradition, prosecution and imprisonment,” a victim wrote in a letter sent to the News&...