JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Here are some recent calls for service in Teton County/Jackson from the dispatch log. Names may be withheld at the request of law enforcement. All persons cited or arrested are presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law. Charges are subject to change following official filing from the Teton County Attorney’s Office.
February 6, 2020, 10:23 a.m.
Officer Raab responded to a Collision Hit & Run. The victim reported they were working when a customer came in to report a white truck had side-swiped their vehicle. The incident was caught on camera from a nearby business. It showed the suspect vehicle traveling westbound very slowly along the curb, roll over the curb, down the sidewalk and to collide with the victim’s vehicle, then back into the parking lot where it paused at the exit, then merged right into westbound traffic. Police are working on identifying the owner and have released a photo of the truck.
February 5, 2020, 2:45 p.m.
Sgt. Matthews responded to a report of Suspicious Circumstances. It was reported a man was displaying the flag upside down on the town square. For those that don’t know, displaying the flag in this manner is a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
Sgt. Matthews checked on the man and determined he was exercising his freedom of speech under the 1st Amendment. [Buckrail has identified the man as town councilmember Jim Stanford].
It’s not uncommon for the police department to receive calls of this nature. Some protests are large in scale, others small with just a person or two. Some assemblies like this will require permits from the town, but many do not, so long as banners aren’t being hung on town property, amplified music isn’t being used, power hookups not needed, or the event is not blocking the sidewalk.
February 5, 2020, at about 1:27 a.m.
Officer Shreve was assigned to the task to break up a party of underage participants who had booked a local motel room. He made initial contact with two individuals at the door, while about ten others crammed themselves into the bathroom to hide. Officer Shreve cleared the room and gave a citation to the 19-year-old Jackson resident who rented the room for being a Minor in Possession of Alcohol.
February 3, 2020, 2:00 a.m.
Cpl. Traphagan observed a vehicle making a U-turn so slowly and methodically as to be out of the ordinary. Curious, Cpl. Traphagan followed the vehicle to see how its driving would continue. Even giving the vehicle the benefit of the doubt due to the snowing conditions, it was swerving so badly across three lanes and drove up onto a curb while trying to make a turn that the officer felt he needed to stop it.
Cpl. Traphagan contacted the driver and found him to be intoxicated, so he did some field sobriety testing. The man did poorly and he had to arrest the 57-year-old Jackson, Wyoming man for DUI.
On February 3, 2020, 12:17 p.m.
Officer Osmond responded to a Collision Hit & Run. The victim reported leaving their vehicle unattended in a parking lot and coming back later to find it damaged from a collision. Fortunately, someone saw the collision and was kind enough to leave a note.
Police have all the information we need to prove the crime, but Officer Osmond is still trying to contact the owner. If the suspect chooses not to contact the department or take responsibility, an arrest warrant will be issued.
February 3, 2020, 3:34 p.m.
RO White responded to a Collision Hit & Run. The victim reported a black, Mercedes SUV collided with her mirror while driving on Buffalo Way. She pulled over to make contact with the other driver, but they didn’t stop.
February 2, 2020, 11:05 p.m.
Officer Clayton observed a female walking with difficulty down the boardwalk. Officer Proctor stopped to check on her. She was heavily intoxicated and was going the wrong direction from her hotel despite using Google maps. She was too drunk to call herself a cab, so Officer Proctor arrested the 33-year-old woman from Aspen, Colorado.
February 1, 2020, 1:33 a.m.
A witness reported hearing a commotion outside their home. When they went to investigate, they found a vehicle had taken out the stop sign and electrical box on the corner and fled the scene.
February 1, 2020, 2:00 a.m.
Sgt. Ruschill stopped a vehicle for going the wrong way on a one-way street. When he made contact with the driver, he remembered the man from an earlier contact where he’d been asked to leave the Cowboy Bar and had to be carried out by his friends. Friends, by the way, who were in the vehicle with him.
Sgt. Ruschill arrested the 40-year-old Juneau, Alaska man who performed poorly on his field sobriety testing and provided a portable breath test of a .110%.
January 31, 2020, 11:55 a.m.
Officer Raab was doing a little patrolling in the back parking lot of one of our local hotels. While checking things out, he noticed a vehicle piled with snow and looking very abandoned. When he ran the registration, he found the license plates were stolen. Officer Raab has contacted the owner, but we’re still waiting for him to finish his investigation to see what eventually happens. At the very least, he will recover the stolen plates.
January 31, 2020, 11:56 a.m.
Officer Jones responded to a report of Destruction of Property. The victim reported the hatchback window had been broken in an unknown manner sometime between the previous evening and that day. Police were not able to do much more than document the crime.
On January 31, 2020, 10:24 p.m.
Officer Gerlach responded to a report of a Disturbance at a local motel. The reporting person told him that the person in the room next door had yelled and then pushed them for an unknown reason, all while wearing nothing but his underwear. Sounded like an assault to Officer Gerlach, so he went to the suspect’s door and knocked, probably hoping the man had put some pants on by that time. He hadn’t, and when he saw the police were at his door, quickly closed it.
Officer Gerlach kept knocking. When the man eventually opened the door again, he was still in his underpants and ran to his bed and covered himself with a sheet. Officer Gerlach issued the 25-year-old Jackson man a citation for Battery.
On January 31, 2020, 10:35 p.m.
Sgt. Ruschill and his team were at the Cowboy Bar investigating a fight. While there, they were dispatched to a Trespass call at the same location. Apparently, an intoxicated man had been asked to leave, but kept coming back.
When Sgt. Ruschill opened the door to the bar, the man fell at his feet. Sgt. Ruschill found probable cause to arrest the 31-year-old man from Worthing, England for Public Intoxication. Sgt. Ruschill tried to get him home before doing so, but the man was too drunk to tell police where he was staying. His portable breath test was a .281%.
January 31, 2020, 10:48 p.m.
Officer O’Donnell received a report of two people slumped over in a rental vehicle, in the middle of the road, with their lights on. Officer O’Donnell made contact with the vehicle and found it as described, also noting the car was in gear with the brake pedal being depressed by the sleeping driver.
The officer woke the driver and his passenger and determined there was no medical problem, but that they were intoxicated. That being the case, he did some field sobriety testing. The driver did poorly and Officer O’Donnell arrested the 31-year-old England man for DUI.
