Wyoming News Briefs

Man killed in wreck near Laramie

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Speed is being investigated as the possible cause of a fatal crash that occurred Friday morning around milepost 326 on Interstate 80 east of Laramie. 

At 9:34 a.m., Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers were notified of a one-vehicle rollover. A 2008 Chevrolet Silverado was headed west on I-80 when the driver lost control of the vehicle, entered the median and overturned. The roadways were slick with snowfall at the time of the crash. 

The driver has been identified as 49-year-old Selma, California, resident Mario Lopez Pizana. Lopez Pizana was wearing a seatbelt and succumbed to his injuries at the crash scene. 

Two passengers in the vehicle have been identified as 26-year-old Patrick Pizana and 22-year-old Jonathan Vega, both California residents. They both were wearing a seatbelt and were not injured in the crash. 

This is the sixth fatality on Wyoming’s roadways in 2022, compared to 14 to date in 2021, five in 2020 and 16 in 2019.

Gillette man accused of making child porn

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette man has been indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of producing child pornography.

Dustin Anthony Hiebert, 24, pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment in federal court, and a trial has been set for April 11.

If convicted on all counts, Hiebert faces 15 years to life in prison and five years to life of supervised release.

Hiebert had been charged in Gillette with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and four counts of sexual exploitation of children. Those charges were recently dismissed because Hiebert had been charged federally with crimes based on the same event and circumstances.

Deputy County Attorney Greg Steward said in court documents that Hiebert’s prosecution would be more appropriately handed under federal jurisdiction.

The affidavit of probable cause filed in the case remains confidential and no other facts regarding the case were provided by U.S. Attorney Bob Murray in a press release.

In addition to prison time, Hiebert also could face fees — not the least of which is up to $250,000 in fines. He also could be ordered to pay a $5000 special assessment through the Victims of Sex Trafficking Act and a $100 special assessment on each count; a $50,000 special assessment and mandatory restitution of not less than $3000 per requesting victim pursuant to the Amy, Vicky and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018.

Legislator proposes naming highway after Trump

CASPER (WNE) — The most pro-Trump state in the country may get a little bit Trumpier...at least in Casper. 

Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, and some of his conservative colleagues filed a bill Friday to designate the entirety of Wyoming Highway 258 the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.” 

The bill would spend $2800 of state money for the project if it is ultimately passed. 

The bill draft also allows the Wyoming Department of Transportation to accept and spend any donations given to the department specifically for the designation. Those donations would offset state funding. 

Gray said the bill would not change that highway’s name, but only its designation. 

Wyoming Highway 258 or Wyoming Boulevard is a highly traveled 10.58-mile-long state highway that spans the western, southern, and eastern edges of the city of Casper. It’s also called Outer Drive. 

Trump remains popular in the state. In both the 2016 and 2020 elections, Wyoming had the highest proportion of voters cast ballots for Trump in the nation. In 2020, nearly 70% of the electorate voted for the former president. 

The highway designation bill will need to clear a two-thirds vote to be introduced at the upcoming budget session, which begins Monday. Only bills related to the budgets and redistricting do not have to clear the super-majority vote for introduction. 

Gray is joined by seven other representatives and one other senator in co-sponsoring the bill.

Jackson schools drop mask mandate

JACKSON (WNE) — In its monthly review of the district’s Smart Start Plan, the Teton County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees unanimously voted to make masks optional and focus testing and quarantine efforts more on symptomatic students.

Starting Saturday, masks will be optional in school facilities. Quarantines will likely not be required if exposed students are asymptomatic, though district nurses and leaders will still make those decisions on a case-by-case basis. Parents and guardians will be notified of a classroom exposure at the elementary level; at the secondary level, notifications will be sent after two or more exposures. Rapid antigen tests, molecular tests and PCR tests remain available upon request.

Teton County schools had previously implemented some of the strictest COVID-19 prevention policies in Wyoming, and those measures didn’t come without controversy. Parents and some teachers have vocally opposed mask requirements based primarily on concerns for individual freedom or for the students’ mental health.

On the flip side, those who supported universal masking — especially as the omicron variant caused more infections than any other COVID surge — said the masks helped students feel safe in the classroom.

The school board’s Wednesday evening decision came after another two-week reduction in regional COVID cases. Countywide cases are down 85% since omicron’s Jan. 16 peak. Superintendent Gillian Chapman told the board that the Test-to-Stay program, which moved from the district headquarters to individual schools, was only finding a handful of positive students per day.

Wyoming wolves not included in protection order

PINEDALE — On Thursday Feb. 10, a federal judge returned gray wolves outside the Northern Rockies to Endangered Species Act protections as “threatened with extinction” in other states.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is ordered to resume recovery efforts in the lower 48 states but not in Wyoming, for example, where gray wolves have surpassed agreed-on recovery goals for years. Most of the states with new wolves spreading after their Yellowstone reintroduction have not counted enough wolves or packs to be considered historically significant.

FWS estimates show 132 wolves in Washington State, 173 in Oregon and fewer than 20 in California.

The legal challenge was driven by a coalition of advocacy groups including Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians and smaller western associations.

Wyoming is the only one of the three states with gray wolves divided between a trophy game management area around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and a predator zone in what officials consider less suitable habitat.

FWS recently announced it was beginning a 12-month status review of the Northern Rockies’ distinct population segment, although Wyoming, Montana and Idaho wildlife agencies have managed them with approved management plans.

While all three states have hunting seasons, Montana and Idaho have loosened some hunting regulations. Wyoming’s 2021 hunting season quotas were not met.