State Briefs

19-year-old man ticketed after hitting, kicking 14-year-old girl

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 19-year-old man was ticketed for assault and battery after hitting and kicking a 14-year-old girl Saturday night. The man claimed it was in self-defense. 

The girl told officers that while she was at an apartment in the 2400 block of Dogwood Avenue, she got into an argument with the 19-year-old and pushed him, said Gillette Police Lt. Brent Wasson. 

The girl had swelling on her lips, nose and eyes, and one of her teeth was knocked out. She was drunk and admitted to drinking shots, but wouldn’t say where she got the alcohol.

Officers went to the apartment and met with an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old man, both of whom said they weren’t at the apartment when the alleged assault occurred. One of the men said he walked into the apartment and saw the girl lying on the ground bleeding.

A 13-year-old girl who was with the 14-year-old backed up the 14-year-old’s story. Police called the 19-year-old suspect, who agreed to meet with them.

He said he was sleeping in the apartment when the two girls came in, looking for the two other men who live there. He woke up and started arguing with the 14-year-old girl, Wasson said. She tried to punch him, he said, and in defense he punched her several times, then kicked her in the ribs when she was down. He had a small scratch on his face and a wound on his hand when he knocked the girl’s tooth out.

Injured ice climber rescued after fall

CODY (WNE) — Search and rescue volunteers from Park and Big Horn counties rescued a fallen ice climber Saturday from an ice waterfall up the South Fork.

The 42-year-old Billings ice climber was on the Broken Heart ice waterfall when he fell some 30 feet from the top of the third pitch. Richard James Dvorak was climbing with a party of ten when the accident happened, according to an SAR release.

The Broken Heart ice waterfall is 38 miles up the South Fork, less than a mile north of the South Fork Highway.

The initial call came into the Park County Sheriff’s 911 Communications Center at 11:35 a.m. Park County SAR was immediately mobilized and deployed two ground teams to the ice waterfall with its Argo tracked snow vehicle.

Rescuers were assisted by two members of the Cody Regional Wilderness Medical Team as well as five volunteers from the Big Horn County SAR Unit who were summoned for additional manpower. However, the Argo was only able to traverse the rough terrain halfway from the highway to the ice waterfall. Rescuers had to hike in from there.

At roughly 2:30 p.m. a PCSAR volunteer and wilderness team member were able to ascend the ice to reach Dvorak. He was complaining of pelvic pain, possible broken ribs and a fractured left femur. After his injuries were stabilized, rescue personnel prepared him for the descent by rope down two ice waterfall pitches.

He was carried down the mountain to the Argo and then transported the rest of the way out to a waiting ambulance. At 8 p.m., he was transported to West Park Hospital where his condition was not available as of press time.

Two men charged in fight at Jackson Hole Airport

JACKSON (WNE) — Two Connecticut men waiting for a delayed flight at Jackson Hole Airport were hauled off in handcuffs Saturday afternoon after an incident that one of them described as a “ridiculous” misunderstanding.

The Jackson Police Department responded at 4:22 p.m. and “removed the unruly men from the plane” after getting a report of passengers fighting with the pilot.

Marian Gajdos, 50, said he and 39-year-old Tomas Simko were drinking while waiting on a delayed flight back to the East Coast.

“We had one too many,” Gajdos told the Jackson Hole Daily.

Gajdos said he and Simko were boarding their United flight when Simko accidentally turned left into the cockpit instead of right into the passenger area.

“He went into the cockpit and accidentally brushed into a pilot or whoever was in there,” Gajdos said. “Then they pushed him around more and more.”

According to court documents, a gate agent told an officer that the men were drunk and not cooperating with airline personnel.

“When Officer [Tim] Cole went into the tarmac he heard an airline agent say that the pilots were fighting with Gajdos and Simko and that they were in the cockpit,” the probable cause affidavit states. “Officer Cole was told that both men pushed their way past the gate agent and onto the aircraft.”

Officers claim they heard Gajdos swearing loudly inside the plane. As officers escorted Gajdos and Simko off the plane, police said Simko ignored their commands and pushed his way back into the cockpit and “argued with the pilots.”

Based on their actions, police arrested Simko for public intoxication, criminal trespass for not leaving the plane when ordered to, and interference with a peace officer, a high misdemeanor.

Woman faces vehicular homicide charge in July accident

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Casper woman accused of killing two Michigan men July 15 when her truck drifted onto the wrong side of the road may have taken more than one medication before driving to Gillette.

Sydney N. Peterson, 33, was bound over to District Court on Wednesday on two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide after Circuit Judge Paul S. Phillips found probable cause to suspect her of the crimes.

The crash killed driver Stephen Biddle, 29, and passenger Alex Gill, 24.

A test of Peterson’s blood after the crash, which was about 23 miles south of Gillette on Highway 50, showed a high level of clonazepam, which a doctor with the Nebraska Regional Poison Center told investigators was “above the therapeutic level.”

A prescription bill bottle found in the cab of the truck showed that she had refilled the clonazepam that day, receiving 62 pills. But only 53 pills remained in the bottle, said Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Anthony Alcon at Peterson’s preliminary hearing Wednesday. The prescribed dosage was one pill twice a day.

When Alcon asked Peterson at the scene what medications she had taken that day, she said she had taken gabapentin in the morning. She made no mention of clonazepam. But she later told another trooper who was following up on the case that she had taken one clonazepam pill before breakfast, Alcon said.

She also said she had taken a baclofen pill, a muscle relaxer which she also had been prescribed, Alcon said.