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[{"type":"text","text":"England Dan & John Ford Coley -- I'd Really Love To See You Tonight"}]

Mix Collage 18 Jun 2024 05 05 PM 9803

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<title>🚧 Wednesday Morning Dance Party: England Dan & John Ford Coley -- I'd Really Love To See You Tonight | Cowboy State Daily</title>

England Dan & John Ford Coley -- I'd Really Love To See You Tonight

Wednesday Morning Dance Party: England Dan & John Ford Coley -- I'd Really Love To See You Tonight

 England Dan & John Ford Coley -- I'd Really Love To See You Tonight

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

Fulfilling the viral “TikTok Door Kick Challenge” by kicking and pounding on people’s doors while wearing ski masks or carrying airsoft guns is a stupid enough idea, but doing it in Wyoming is even dumber, the Carbon County sheriff said Monday.

One of the key minds behind Wyoming’s current self-defense laws agrees.

TikTok challenges are online trends of acts people can do while being recorded to fulfill a dare.

The Door Kick challenge is an emerging social media trend that has gained popularity over the past several months in states including Texas, Florida, and Colorado, wrote Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken in a Monday Facebook post.

It involves “forcefully kicking and banging on homeowners’ doors while being recorded, sometimes while wearing ski-masks or carrying airsoft guns,” the sheriff wrote. “We wish we were making this up. But we’re not.”

He said in a later phone interview that he hasn’t seen these incidents in his county but issued the statement to warn people and fellow law enforcement agencies.

Bakken’s post referenced the case of an 11-year-old boy 

 two weeks ago while participating in the challenge.

“For the love of whatever deity you pledge your faith to, do not do this,” Bakken wrote. These pranks can lead to serious, even deadly repercussions, he wrote, adding, “The great state of Wyoming is likely one of the worst places to dress up in ski masks and forcefully kick at doors at night.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It Certainly Is"}]

Former state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a Laramie County Republican, agreed wholeheartedly.

Bouchard was a key co-sponsor of the “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law Wyoming passed in 2018.

It specifies that people in self-defense scenarios don’t have a duty to retreat from places they occupy lawfully during the conflict, as long as they’re not the initial aggressor, or committing a crime at that time.

A person using fatal self-defense doesn’t need to show his life or someone else’s was in danger, under the law.

He only needs to show that he had a reasonable belief that he or someone else was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.

This makes the door-knock prank even more risky, Bouchard said.

“(What about when) people play a prank and they don’t know the mindset of the person inside (the house), they don’t know what they’re going through?” asked Bouchard. “What if it’s a coincidence that someone’s called this person and threatened them (before) someone does a prank at that door?”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"And I Remember …"}]

Bouchard recalled the 2018 Wyoming Supreme Court case of State v. Jason John.

It’s a pivotal case in Wyoming self-defense history. It set the framework by which judges follow another provision of the law Bouchard helped to champion. That is, a person “shall not” be criminally prosecuted if he acted in self-defense.

In the past, courts let the jury decide whether a defendant had acted in self-defense.

Natrona County District Court Judge Catherine Wilking found herself grappling with Stand Your Ground’s new immunity provision weeks after the law became active – when a first-degree murder case with a self-defense component landed in her court.  

Casper man Jason John had shot his romantic rival dead at the entrance to John’s home. The intruder, Wesley Willow, was unarmed, but had exchanged threats with John before charging into the latter’s home the night of Aug. 3, 2018.

The woman with Willow was armed with a liquor bottle with which she intended to hit John's head; and the pair also had with them a man whom John did not know, according to court documents. 

Wilking let John have a pre-trial hearing, to argue that he acted in self-defense. She also let the prosecutor argue that John had, rather, acted criminally.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Why We Have These Hearings"}]

At the end, she decided that John was right and dismissed his case altogether.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The state of Wyoming challenged that."}]

Yet, Wilking had followed the basic premise of the law, the Wyoming Supreme Court concluded in an April 6, 2020, opinion.

Her on-the-fly legal framework of the hearing wasn’t perfect, and the high court altered the finer workings of future self-defense hearings – which the legal community now calls “John’s hearings.”

But the high court’s mandates on framework didn’t change the outcome of John’s case, the opinion says.

Under the evidentiary standards put in place – which remain in place – the defendant argues that the evidence shows at first glance that he acted in self-defense.

If he can prove his case under that “at first glance,” or “prima facie” standard, then it becomes the prosecutor’s turn to argue back.

The prosecutor has a higher standard of proof: preponderance of the evidence. If he can prove under that standard that the defendant did not act in self-defense, then the case continues toward trial.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"If he can’t, then it’s dismissed."}]

Door Kick challenge 9 15 325

<title>🚧 Sheriff Warns Doing TikTok 'Door Kick Challenge' In Wyoming Can Get You Killed | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Wyoming sheriff warns that the viral TikTok "Door Kick Challenge" could have deadly consequences. One of the people who championed Wyoming's Stand Your Ground law wholeheartedly agrees.

Sheriff Warns Doing TikTok 'Door Kick Challenge' In Wyoming Can Get You Killed

Courts

Accused of having sex acts with a minor he met while he was still her teacher, a former Wheatland high school and middle school band instructor is facing a maximum potential penalty of more than 400 years in prison.

Evan Whitt Bradley, 34, remains in the Platte County Detention Center on 19 felony-level sex counts, charged last week in Wheatland Circuit Court. Many of those charges stem from allegations that he performed sex acts this past winter with a child younger than 16, over whom he held some authority.

His preliminary hearing has been set for Monday at 1 p.m.

Bradley was hired in June 2014 as Wheatland Middle School and Wheatland High School band teacher, Platte County School District Superintendent John Weigel told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday email. He resigned in March 2024, Weigel added.

That was four months before the alleged sex crimes started, according to Bradley’s list of charges.

“I understand your interest in this matter,” wrote Weigel, “but due to confidentiality concerns, I am unable to comment on any personnel issues with any of our current or former employees.”

Because Wyoming law limits what public officials can reveal about sex-crime defendants at the preliminary phase of prosecution, the Wheatland Circuit Court gave Cowboy State Daily a heavily-redacted evidentiary affidavit Thursday, which describes Bradley’s alleged conduct.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘With His Students’"}]

Platte County Sheriff’s Investigator Troy Bartel learned Jan. 27 that Bradley was “rumored to be having inappropriate relationships with his students,” according to the affidavit and outside confirmation of the person referenced under the redactions.

“There was also concern that a minor female, (redacted), stayed the night at (redacted) residence,” says the document.

Bartel interviewed a minor female Jan. 30. She described the allegation that another minor female, while intoxicated, “had stayed the night at (redacted) residence.”

Bartel conducted another interview with a minor female that day, though it’s unclear if it was a separate girl from the first interview. That female described witnessing a romantic-looking hug between two people whose names are redacted.  

On Feb. 3, Bartel interviewed a minor female at the sheriff’s office. She described Snapchat discussions in which the defendant was reportedly involved.

Bartel applied for a search warrant on the Snapchat accounts Feb. 5.

Snapchat handed the account information over Feb. 15, the document says.

In the Snapchat account Bartel was investigating, he noticed three sexually explicit photographs of a minor female in a “memories” file dated July 9, 2024, and another “memories” file dated Sept. 14, 2024, according to the narrative coupled with the charges applied to it.

Bartel applied March 10 for a search warrant for the defendant’s home and person. The warrant also authorized a review of his technology devices and the taking of his fingerprints or facial scan, says the affidavit.

Platte County Sheriff’s deputies and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents executed those warrants March 11. They seized a phone, in which they found the sexually explicit photographs in the two dated memories files on the phone’s Snapchat app, says the document.

Bradley was booked into the jail that same day, says a booking log on Platte County’s website. His bond was set at $500,000.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘When He Was Her Teacher’"}]

A DCI special agent interviewed a female that day.

“(Redacted) developed a close relationship with (redacted) when he was her teacher,” the affidavit relates from that interview. “(Redacted) would also talk to (redacted) about things she had going on in her personal life and struggles she had.”

The female said sexual conduct between herself and Bradley started around November or December 2024, and continued into February, Bartel wrote in the affidavit.

He’d “guilt” her into sending explicit photos, the female said, according to that narrative.

He was “persistent” in goading her to let him save her photos. He promised to delete them later, the document relates.

The document says the defendant would threaten to commit suicide, and because of this the female “could not tell anyone about their relationship.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Could Be More"}]

The investigation is ongoing, and investigators may recommend additional charges, Platte County Sheriff David Russell told Cowboy State Daily in a brief phone interview Friday.

The sheriff issued a notice to other potential victims.

“The big thing for us is if there are any other victims, we’d like them to come forward,” Russell said.

Evan Whitt Bradley 3 21 25

<title>🚧 Former Wheatland Music Teacher In Jail On Child Sex Charges, Could Get 400 Years | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Accused of sex acts with a minor he met while he was her teacher, a former Wheatland high school and middle school band instructor is facing a maximum potential penalty of more than 400 years in prison. Evan Bradley's preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Monday.

Wednesday Morning Dance Party: England Dan & John Ford Coley -- I'd Really Love To See You Tonight

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