In alleged wolf torment case, Sublette County eyes prosecution

JACKSON —- Clayton Melinkovich has received thousands of emails and calls demanding harsher penalties for a man publicly accused of tormenting a wolf at a Daniel bar.

But Melinkovich, the Sublette County attorney and prosecutor who will handle the case, is trying to take a measured approach.

“We’re investigating,” Melinkovich told the Jackson Hole Daily. “And once we have facts, we’ll make a decision.”

Melinkovich otherwise declined to comment on the investigation, which the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

The announcement came after calls to charge Cody Roberts, the man who allegedly mistreated the wolf, reached a fever pitch. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department initially investigated the incident and charged Roberts only with possessing a live animal and fined him $250, which he paid.

But local wildlife advocates and national animal welfare groups have spent the better part of the last week calling for Roberts to face felony animal cruelty charges, which could come with up to two years in jail and a $5,000 fine. Game and Fish has said the state’s animal cruelty laws do not apply to “predators.”

In the 15% of the state surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, Wyoming considers wolves trophy game animals. But in the rest of the Equality State, including Daniel, where the incident occurred, wolves are considered predators and can legally be killed without limits and with very few restrictions.

Melinkovich, however, has said he believes Wyoming’s animal cruelty laws can apply to predators in certain cases.

The Jackson Hole Daily asked the sheriff’s office and Melinkovich whether they were pursuing animal cruelty charges. Both said they couldn’t comment further, pending the results of an ongoing investigation. But both released lengthy public statements Wednesday.

Sgt. Travis Bingham, the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, announced its investigation on Facebook, explaining why the office hadn’t started an investigation sooner: It hadn’t received any complaints from the public until after the incident went viral.

He also said the office and Wyoming Game and Fish had been inundated with “thousands of calls and emails” from all over the world, and he condemned people who threatened violence over the incident. Threats could keep witnesses from coming forward, Bingham said.

Melinkovich set up a lengthy auto-reply to his county email, where the attorney has been receiving multiple messages a minute from people imploring him to take action. In that email, Melinkovich laid out some of his thinking about the case, the veracity of news reports, death threats, and his office’s pace.

Game and Fish, which originally investigated the incident, has confirmed only a few details, per WyoFile and KHOL’s reporting: that Roberts captured a wolf in Wyoming’s “predator zone,” brought the animal into his residence and later into a local business.

Citing anonymous sources, and later publishing a photo of Roberts with the wolf, the Cowboy State Daily has, however, reported additional allegations: that Roberts ran the animal over with his snowmobile, disabled it, duct taped its mouth shut and brought it inside the Green River Bar before killing it.

Melinkovich cautioned that those are “not verified facts” but rather “allegations from an anonymous source.”

“While it is possible that some or all of these allegations could ultimately be verified through a lawful investigation, they cannot be used as the basis for any criminal charge unless and until they are vetted,” he said.

“Said another way, unless something can be proven in court beyond a reasonable doubt, it is not a fact that I or any other prosecutor can consider when making a charging decision.”

This story was published on April 11, 2024.