JACKSON, Wyo. — Mayor Pete Muldoon attempted to defend himself against a sexual assault allegation Monday evening during a Town Council meeting. Councilwoman and vice mayor, Hailey Morton Levinson, stopped him before he could, citing that a Town Council meeting was not the platform to discuss the mayor’s private matters.
During the public comment section of the meeting, a member of the community, Eden Morris, read a statement about her own experience with sexual assault and how the mayor attempted to silence her via Facebook messages, saying “I believe you, but women lie.”
Morris said that she has screenshots, now sent to the town for the public record, of the mayor engaging with her on Facebook after she posted a similar story to Jessica Gill’s, calling on the mayor to step down.
“He chose to engage with me on a private platform, he chose to use his position of power to intimidate me,” Morris said during her remarks. Morris alleged that Muldoon engaged with her, rather than Gill because of the Gill family’s prominence in the town.
Mayor Muldoon has been the topic of community discussion over the past few days after the Teton County Sheriff’s office released 2018 reports accusing him of the sexual assault of a female. The Jackson Hole News&Guide broke the story on Oct. 2, after the reports began circulating around town.
An initial report was filed on July 8, 2018, by Jess Stone, of the Teton County Sheriff’s Office. On July 9, 2018, a follow-up interview was conducted by Jesse Willcox, with the alleged victim.
The reports were released after local activist and community member, Gloria Courser requested the records. Sheriff Matt Carr told the News&Guide, “We get records requests on a regular basis, and we send all of them to the county attorney for review. We handled this one like we would any other.”
The Sheriff’s Office as well as Teton County Prosecuting Attorney Erin Weisman maintain that because no charges were ever filed against Muldoon, his name is legally permitted to release.
Under Wyoming’s restricted disclosure law (6-2-319(a)), prior to an indictment, “neither names of the alleged actor of the victim of the charged offense, nor any other information reasonably likely to disclose the identities of the parties shall be released or negligently allowed to be released to the public by any public employee except as authorized by the judge with jurisdiction over the criminal charges.”
Local candidates took the opportunity to denounce Pete Muldoon’s alleged behavior. Jim Rooks, who is running for a seat on the Jackson Town Council said in a Facebook post,“ this alleged rape report contains every ingredient of the tragedy of sexual assault in our community and country, including non-consent, victim-blaming, abuse of positional authority, and coercion. My heart goes out to the victim and I applaud her courage to report sexual assault against a person in power.” the post prompted comments from the public as well as from Mayor Muldoon, alleging that Rooks “sees this as an opportunity to grab power.”
Jessica Chambers, who is also running for a seat on the Jackson Town Council, spoke out about the allegations in an open letter sent as a tip to Buckrail. Chambers recounted her own sexual assault in 2004 by a medical professional who abused her and over a hundred women. She discussed her attacker’s recent arrest after 15 years. His trial began a few weeks ago.
Chambers wrote, “Unless we victims take the difficult step of subjecting ourselves to the justice system nothing will change. We cannot try alleged crimes on social media.”
While others in the community shared their own stories and called for his resignation. Jessica Gill posted her own story of sexual assault on her Facebook page, recounting the event, and explaining why she was unable to press charges saying, “After my assault, I couldn’t leave my bed. I was so numb from what had happened to me and I didn’t have the strength to fight for justice against my attacker. Not many victims do, their minds and bodies are trying to process what just happened to them.” she called on the community to demand the resignation of the mayor.
The Town Council meeting was the first public meeting held after the allegations were made public.
