UW basketball player charged with battery, assault

LARAMIE (WNE) — University of Wyoming men’s basketball player Nyaires Redding has been charged with one count of simple battery and one count of simple assault for his alleged involvement in an altercation Dec. 9 in downtown Laramie.

The charges, both misdemeanors, were filed earlier this week in Albany County Circuit Court.

Both charges are punishable by fines, but Redding could face up to six months in jail if convicted on the battery charge.

Redding is scheduled to appear in circuit court Feb. 4.

According to the battery citation, obtained by WyoSports, Redding “did intentionally cause bodily injury to Molly Pickerill, striking her in the face, knocking her down and unconscious.”

According to the citation for simple assault, the citation reads Redding “did unlawfully attempt to cause bodily injury to another, Katie Schrater, swung at her, nicking her nose, drawing blood.”

Redding was originally cited by the Laramie Police Department for disorderly conduct and inciting a fight from the Dec. 9 incident. Redding was scheduled to appear in municipal court Jan. 31, but with the circuit charges being filed, the municipal charges have been dismissed.

Redding was suspended indefinitely by UW after it learned of the altercation, and remains suspended.

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Legislature will be out for first time on MLK Jr. Day

CHEYENNE (WNE) — The Wyoming Legislature will be out of session for the first time on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday Monday. But the day out of session might not be a sign that the Legislature will be taking the day off permanently. 

During the interim session, the Management Council decided to make the holiday one of two three-day weekends scheduled for this general session. House Speaker Steve Harshman, R-Casper, said he and his colleagues weren't intentionally looking to take the day off in observance of the holiday. 

Instead, in looking to schedule two three-day weekends for the session, Harshman said it just made sense to schedule one of them when both Wyoming's executive branch and the federal government would be taking a day off. He said he didn't realize the Legis-lature hadn't been out of session on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before. 

The chance to take off for the holiday only comes up once every two years, when the Legislature is in a general session. Budget sessions start after the holiday in February. 

In the Legislature's efforts to move away from a 40-day/20-day split between the general session and budget session, Harsh-man said the Management Council looked for ways to bring the time spent in each session closer together. Which is why they decided to take the holiday off Monday - to help lessen the number of days in the general session. 

"It just comes at the perfect time. We do a couple weeks, get a three-day weekend. Go back home, talk to constituents face to face," Harshman said. 

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UW eyes reserves to replace returned donation

LARAMIE (WNE) — The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees are likely to tap their construction reserve account for $1.2 million to help replace a $2 million donation pledged by Tony Cercy, a Casper businessman convicted of third-degree sexual assault in November.

Cercy had pledged $2 million to help fund the High Altitude Performance Center, the $44.5 million add-on to the Rochelle Athletics Center which opened in August.

After his conviction, the trustees voted at a special meeting in December to cancel that pledge.

At the time of the December board meeting, Cercy had already transferred $800,000 and the Foundation was expected to receive another $400,000 that month.

Trustees opted to return the transferred funds, as well cancel the impending $400,000.

UW spokesman Chad Baldwin said the university's athletic department, with help from the UW Foundation, plans to engage in more fundraising to replace the $2 million lost from the returned donation. That fundraising aims to completely reimburse the construction reserve account.

While the High Altitude Performance Center is already complete, Cercy’s donations weren’t scheduled to be fully received until 2020.

Baldwin said the Foundation typically collects donations, and then as general contractors draw money from UW, the university draws money from the Foundation.

The construction reserve account was creating in 2017 as part of the trustees’ decision to “sweep” numerous small reserve accounts scattered among the university into a few centralized funds.

Cercy was convicted for performing oral sex on an unconscious 20-year-old woman at his home in 2017.

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Agency drills to detect subsidence in Rock Springs

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Abandoned Mine Land Division is continuing its exploratory drilling in Rock Springs.

Drilling is being conducted outside the First National Bank Building and at the Rock Springs Library's parking lot.

"Subsidence is an issue Rock Springs has dealt with for many years," AML Public Information Officer Keith Guille said.

The work by the bank building began Wednesday and is likely to be finished Thursday, while work at the library that began over a week ago will be finished by next week, according to NUCOR Inc. Drilling Assistant Superintendent Dave Reed.

The information will let the AML know "if there's any type of openings down below and whatnot," Guille said.

"From there we'll gather whether we'll have to do some reclamation work like grouting," he said. "It's always important to get all the information that we can."

Grout is a thin mortar that is used to fill cracks and crevices in masonry, according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Guille said grouting is like a concrete quarry that goes underground and keeps the mine openings down below from opening up to 

the surface.

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Boardings steady at Cody Airport

POWELL (WNE) — Roughly 77,400 passengers flew in and out of Yellowstone Regional Airport (YRA) on a commercial flight in 2018. It marked the third straight year that the Cody airport has drawn more than 77,000 passengers. 

During the peak tourist season, YRA officials saw full flights and “just an incredible amount of people using the airport over the summer and even into September,” said Bucky Hall, an airport board member. 

The overall number of boardings stayed steady from 2017, dropping by only 0.5 percent. That’s despite the fact that the number of commercial flights offered at YRA fell by 2.5 percent last year — and in spite of a change in air service that was unpopular with some local travelers. 

Because of limits on a federal subsidy program, the Cody airport wound up having to trade its year-round service to Salt Lake City for service to Denver last March. A number of people in the Cody area have expressed displeasure about the switch, saying they preferred SkyWest Airlines’ service to Delta’s hub in Salt Lake to United’s hub in Denver. 

For Cody, the change in service was the cost of participating in a federal program that keeps smaller airports connected to major ones by subsidizing two flights a day. 

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Inmate admits to stashing drugs in butt crack

JACKSON (WNE) — The man who had a bag containing over 80 oxycodone pills stuffed in his rear end during a booking at Teton County Jail pleaded guilty Tuesday in Teton County District Court.

“I had a large amount of oxycodone in between my butt cheeks when I went inside the jail, and when they strip searched me they must have fallen on the floor,” Jared Huston told Judge Timothy Day.

Huston pleaded guilty to felony possession, and the state of Wyoming agreed to drop two other charges he faced — driving under suspension and possession of methamphetamine.

Huston, 38, of Thayne, was arrested in April after being pulled over for speeding.

“The subject quickly exited his vehicle and appeared to be in an agitated state,” according to the report.

Because Huston seemed to be on drugs and was in violation of release terms on a previous possession charge, deputies searched his car.

They found a glass pipe with a misdemeanor amount of meth, police said. He was being booked on the two misdemeanor charges when detention officers saw the bag of pills drop from Huston’s backside at the jail.

“It wasn’t in my body, your honor, but it was in between my butt cheeks,” Huston said.

“But you knew it was there and it was yours?” Judge Day asked.

“Yes,” Huston said.

The court accepted Huston’s guilty plea. Huston’s court appointed attorney, Elisabeth Trefonas, asked the court to consider releasing him.