Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884

Wyoming News Briefs

Simpson recovering after fall and surgery

CODY (WNE) — The former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson is recovering from a fall he took in California last week, requiring a partial hip replacement and surgery.

His son, Colin Simpson, confirmed that the fall took place on Thursday.

Simpson said when his father fell, he suffered a femoral neck fracture at the head of the femur and under the ball of the hip joint. According to the The National Center for Biotechnology Information, femoral neck fractures are a specific type of intracapsular hip fracture.

Al Simpson only needed a partial hip replacement on about “half” of the hip, to replace the ball of the hip joint, Colin Simpson said.

He said his father is working hard in physically therapy in order to regain the necessary strength to return to Cody, which should happen in about “1-2 weeks,” Colin Simpson estimated.

“He’s doing well other than having to get a new hip,” he said.

Two dead in wreck near Evanston

EVANSTON (WNE) — A man and boy are dead after another man drove his pickup into vehicles that were stopped for a previous accident on Interstate 80 near Evanston on Sunday, July 18, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

The fatal crash occurred around milepost 1 on Interstate 80, just west of Evanston.

According to patrol reports, a 2002 Toyota RAV-4 and 2013 Ford F-150 were stopped in traffic due to an earlier crash blocking the roadway. The driver of a 2018 GMC Sierra failed to see the stopped traffic and collided with the Toyota, causing the Toyota to hit the back of the Ford.

The driver of the GMC has been identified as 29-year-old Greeley, Colorado, resident Braylin Wertenberger. Wertenberger was not wearing his seatbelt and was transported to the Evanston Regional Hospital for injuries sustained in the crash.

The driver of the Toyota has been identified as 71-year-old Wolf Point, Montana, resident William J. Baker. Baker was wearing a seatbelt and transported by helicopter to the University of Utah, where he later succumbed to his injuries sustained in the crash.

The juvenile passenger in the vehicle has been identified as Wolf Point, Montana, resident Scobey J. Baker. He was wearing a seatbelt and succumbed to injuries at the scene of the crash.

Driver inattention and speed on the part of Wertenberger are being investigated as potential contributing factors.

Grizzly bear moved after killing cattle

POWELL (WNE) — A grizzly bear was captured north of Pinedale on Wednesday and relocated to an area about 5 miles from the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

The adult male was targeted after it killed cattle on a U.S. Forest Service grazing allotment north of Pinedale in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Forest Service decided the bear should be relocated to the Five Mile Drainage within the Shoshone National Forest.

Game and Fish attempts to capture bears when other options are exhausted or unattainable.

“Grizzly bear relocation is a management tool afforded to large carnivore biologists to minimize conflicts between humans and grizzly bears and is critical to the management of the population,” Game and Fish reported in a press release Friday.

Once captured, all circumstances are taken into account when determining if the animal should be relocated or removed (euthanized or moved to a facility out of the ecosystem). Bears deemed an immediate threat to human safety are not released back into the wild.

“When relocation is warranted, the selection of a relocation site is determined taking into consideration the age, sex, and type of conflict the bear was involved in as well as potential human activity in the vicinity of the relocation site,” the Game and Fish said. “This particular site was chosen due to the lack of human presence.”

Teen joy ride causes more than $40,000 damage

GILLETTE (WNE) — Two teenagers were arrested and a third is still at large after they were caught driving a stolen pickup through Fox Park and the Energy Capital Sports Complex on Wednesday night, causing more than $40,000 in damage in the process.

A call first came in of a suspected drunken driver when a 26-year-old woman reported she saw a white 2006 Chevy pickup collide with a portable toilet at Fox Park then crash through her own fence and drive in circles through her backyard, said Police Lt. Kelly Alger.

Officers found empty alcohol bottles, broken glass and a backpack at the park. 

A few minutes later, another call came in reporting the pickup had busted through a fence at the Energy Capital Sports Complex.

When police arrived, bystanders had one of the suspects, age 14, apprehended. The witnesses said there were two more boys who ran off. Officers tracked down a 16-year-old boy, but the third suspect was still unidentified as of Thursday morning.

It was later learned that the truck was stolen and both teenagers were taken to jail. Both teenagers are thought to have been “impaired to some degree,” Alger said.

Estimated damage to the backyard, both parks and the truck is more than $40,000.

“Most of that is going to be fencing that they just drove through until the truck was no longer operational and that’s when they ran, is my understanding,” Alger said.

Both teenagers were arrested for felony conspiracy to commit destruction of property and felony theft, Alger said.

Cody man killed in motorcycle wreck

CODY (WNE) — A Cody man on a motorcycle was killed Friday evening on the South Fork after being rear-ended by a car driven by a local teen.

Daniel Tudor, 61, was killed in the crash.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Lee Pence said the setting sun is being considered as a contributing factor in the crash. According to the accident report, Cody resident Megan McCann, 18, was driving west into the sun on WYO 291 in her Mazda and failed to see the stopped Harley Davidson.

At about 8 p.m. the Mazda collided with the back of the Harley, causing the motorcycle driver to be thrown from the bike.

Tudor was not wearing a helmet and succumbed to his injuries at the scene of the crash. McCann was wearing a seatbelt and not injured.

Judge freezes assets in $15 million fraud case

RIVERTON (WNE) — Former Wyoming Catholic College chief financial officer Paul McCown of Lander has been ordered by a federal judge not to make any financial transactions other than routine purchases and exchanges. 

McCown is accused in a federal suit filed in June of acquiring a $15 million loan under false pretenses, then distributing most of the money to several recipients. 

The plaintiff in the case, investment services firm RIA R Squared, filed suit against McCown on June 22, alleging that McCown pretended he was worth more than $750 million in order to reap a $15 million loan from the company. 

The complaint states the fraud was achieved by McCown through forgery of bank statements pertaining to his account, and by his own impersonation of Wyoming Community Bank vice president Kendall Hayford, whom RIA R Squared attempted to contact to confirm McCown’s standing. 

On June 23, RIA R Squared filed a request for a preliminary injunction against McCown, which would forbid the Lander man from making unusual transfers of his funds –– or “dissipating, disposing of, liquidating, disseminating, and/or transferring, directly or indirectly, any of (his) personal assets or any assets of entities they own or control, other than in the ordinary course of business or personal affairs.” 

Man found not guilty on sexual exploitation charges

GILLETTE (WNE) — A man accused of six counts of sexual exploitation of children for possessing child pornography was found not guilty on all six charges.

Terrill Kim Morris, aka Terril Kim Morris, 56, had been accused of knowingly possessing and watching six videos that showed young boys engaged in sexual conduct. The videos were found while Morris was being investigated for the alleged sexual abuse of two boys.

District Judge Thomas W. Rumpke presided over the trial, which happened Monday and Tuesday.

After deliberating for about two hours, the jury came to a verdict of not guilty on all counts.

Morris’s attorney, Public Defender Richard Weisheimer, said the police charged Morris because they were uncomfortable with the videos he was watching.

Morris, a registered sex offender from Washington, moved to Gillette in 2019.

The sexual abuse accusations were not brought up during this week’s trial. Morris will be tried on those charges at a later date.

When the Gillette Police Department was investigating Morris for the alleged sexual abuse investigation, Detective Julianne Witham found eight videos on Morris’s phone depicting young boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This led to eight counts of sexual exploitation of children. Two of the counts were later dropped.

The jury, made up of eight women and four men, watched the six videos and were tasked with determining whether the people in the videos were children or adults.