The Star Valley Independent is a member of the Wyoming News Exchange. These stories come courtesy of the WNE.

Man attempts to flee police in concrete mixer truck

GILLETTE (WNE) — During a chase early Thursday morning, a South Dakota man crashed a possibly stolen white Dodge Ram pickup and tried to escape in a concrete mixer truck that caught fire before he was arrested, Police Lt. Brent Wasson said.

Damages caused during the chase are still being calculated.

Eric Herman Jr., 32, was eventually apprehended at about 1 a.m. and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and possession of meth. Additional charges are likely, Wasson said.

While police officers were in the Ramada Inn parking lot at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, they smelled marijuana and saw Herman enter the Dodge Ram. They caught up to him on the Interstate 90 eastbound on-ramp and tried to pull him over.

However, Herman fled, reaching speeds up to 100 mph on I-90. Police then stopped the pursuit and followed Herman, who eventually headed through a field toward a port of entry and crashed into a ditch,Wasson said.

Before officers caught up to Herman, he fled on foot and ran into the parking lot at Simon Contractors. As officers were setting up a perimeter in the area, they heard a vehicle start and saw a concrete mixer truck moving.

Officers deployed road spikes in the parking lot, where Herman drove through fences and avoided the spikes. He left the lot, driving on South Enterprise Avenue and East Warlow Drive, dragging fences behind the concrete mixer truck and avoiding additional road spikes.

At some point, the truck’s brakes locked and caught fire, forcing Herman to a stop, Wasson said.

Officers then broke out the truck windows and apprehended Herman, who had 0.5 grams of meth and a can of Bud Light on him and seemed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Wasson said.

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Sublette County joins PILT lawsuit

PINEDALE (WNE) — Sublette County Commissioners voted unanimously at their July 17 meeting to participate in a PILT payments class action lawsuit against the federal government.

The decision followed a brief, less than 5-minute, closed executive session with deputy county attorney Matt Gaffney.  

PILT, or Payment In Lieu of Taxes, funding compensates counties for the property taxes they are unable to collect because of non-taxable federal lands within their borders. 

More than 80 percent of the lands in Sublette County are managed by either the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service, making PILT funds critical to Sublette County’s revenue streams. 

The class action alleges the federal government has underpaid counties’ PILT for fiscal years 2015-2017, according to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ order dated April 26 that certifies Kane County, Utah v. United States as a class action case.  

Court documents explain Congress failed to appropriate enough funds to the Department of the Interior to make full PILT payments during those fiscal years.  

The court denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss the suit and found the government liable for Kane County’s underpayments, according to the court order filed Dec. 21, 2017.  

Sept. 14 is the deadline for counties to opt in to the class action suit.  

Sublette County Clerk Mary Lankford has previously advised commissioners that there is “no down side” to participating in the class action suit. 

Court documents indicate counties do not have to pay for counsel or other costs.  

Lankford said it was hard to know what was due Sublette County, but she estimated the amount to be $38,000.

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Hidden Falls crack may have existed for months

JACKSON (WNE) — New information park rangers have gleaned from climbing guides suggests the 100-foot crack in the headwall near Hidden Falls has been there for months.

The horizontal fissure is consequential because it has indefinitely closed the portion of the Jenny Lake trail network that leads to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point, perhaps Grand Teton National Park’s most popular day-hiking destinations.

Rangers’ continuing investigation of the crack unearthed the information that it formed well before July 9, when park officials became aware of it.

“Additional conversations with some of the climbing guides revealed information that they thought perhaps that has been there for a while,” Teton park spokeswoman Denise Germann said. “They believe that it may have been there since last fall.”

Exum Mountain Guides normally uses the rock wall that fissured to prepare its clients for ascents in the Tetons, though the company’s practice area has been moved for now. 

Teton park staff have monitored the section of rock that has splintered for the past 10 days, and they surveyed it at being 100 feet long, 20 feet high and 20 feet wide. So far, the crack hasn’t changed in any discernible way, and it’s being monitored with time-lapse cameras and precision GPS equipment.

Rangers are consulting National Park Service geologists, Yosemite National Park and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Landslide Hazards Program about what to do.

A “risk assessment” needs to be conducted before the area can be labeled safe for the public and reopened. First, though, more data is needed to inform the assessment, Germann said.

“We need to continue to do that,” she said. “I’m not sure that a couple days of data is to the point that we need.”

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Children taken into state care after meth arrests

PINEDALE (WNE) – Three family members living in south Sublette County, as well as two friends visiting from Washington, are charged with child endangerment and possession of meth and marijuana after a series of arrests that began on July 10. 

Five young children were taken into state care from the home, which Sublette deputies and detectives described as having animal feces, rotting food, moldy dishes, dirty clothing and trash throughout the house. 

The three family members are father Stevie McCoy, mother Sheila C. McCoy and their son James E. McCoy. The others arrested are Nicholes J. Sargent and Morgan N. Hanson, both from Washington, who arrived at the McCoys’ on July 6, according to deputy and detective affidavits. 

They allegedly used meth while the children were in the home when they arrived and on or around July 10, according to their charges. 

Hanson said she and Sargent came in a vehicle that she borrowed from a friend; however, the friend had reported her car stolen and the Jackson Police Department asked Sublette County Sheriff’s Office for help finding it. It was parked at the McCoys, according to records. 

On July 10, Deputies Krystal Mansur and Zach Semmons went to Marbleton to investigate the stolen-vehicle report, talked to Sheila McCoy and went with her to the McCoys’ home to look at a ticket that James got while driving the vehicle. 

While there, the affidavit states, a deputy saw marijuana “in plain view” on the front seat. Inside, they saw four young children. 

Hanson also reportedly told investigators that she, Sargent and her baby traveled with meth and marijuana from Washington to Wyoming; they also allegedly took a pair of horse statues valued at $20 from outside the Green Pastures thrift shop in Marbleton, affidavits say.