Three federal judges dismissed felony grand jury indictments against nine defendants Friday, citing misconduct by interim U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Darin Smith that could have prejudiced the jurors.“This is not a case where a few offhand statements were improperly sprinkled throughout the presentation of evidence in one defendant’s case,” the judges’ order reads. “This misconduct began with some of the first words spoken to the grand jury (and) the misconduct continued to penetrate the proceedings in off-the-record conversations, occurring on the breaks between indictments.“This is deeply concerning,” the judges wrote.The judges dismissed felony indictments against Cheyenne Swett, Richard Allen, Michael Scott Hopper, Brian Joseph Johnson, Dennison Jay Antelope, Mathew Christopher Jacoby, Matthew Miller Jr., Wolf Elkins Duran and Jose Benito Ocon. The now-dismissed charges ranged from felony possession of firearms, drug distribution and possession of child pornography, among other things.
Defense attorneys sought the dismissals on the grounds that Smith improperly told the grand jury the defendants were “bad guys,” stated they were “murderers” and that deliberations “won’t take long.”
