KHOL 89.1 Jackson Hole Community Radio produced this story with editing support from WyoFile.
Teton County Sheriff Deputy Eric Snow is still campaigning for sheriff and bashing the office that suspended him, which he aims to lead.
Snow’s comments come a week before the election and a week after his suspension for reasons that remain guarded by the sheriff’s office. Snow said he’s being disciplined for “failure to act” during an arrest last week.
His suspension follows two highly scrutinized DUI arrests. In the first, Snow charged a Jackson man with a DUI and jailed him despite what the Teton County Sheriff’s Office said was a lack of evidence. In the second, he did not charge a DUI despite a field test indicating intoxication.
In his first interview since being put on leave, the Republican candidate called his suspension a “no-win situation.” Snow denounced the decision by Lt. Mark Priest as retaliation for challenging their boss, Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr, a Democrat seeking his third term as sheriff.
Snow also defended his arrest track record and claimed Carr has turned the office into a “political instrument.”
Carr said he had no role in putting Snow on leave and denied allegations that he weaponized the office. In the three-way race, which also includes independent Chris Glenn, Carr has also faced scrutiny for offering a job to his one-time primary opponent, a former Jackson police officer, during the election.
Carr did, however, say that at least two of Snow’s recent arrests “reflect a pattern of behavior that’s very concerning, that is not reflective of the type of law enforcement we want in our community.”
Carr said that he would release Snow’s personnel file, which would include any past department reviews, only if Snow first agreed to that.
Snow declined to do so and told KHOL that, “Cops are afforded some level of privacy.”
Mark Jackowski, Snow’s attorney, said he reviewed what was represented by the sheriff’s office to constitute Snow’s personnel file and was unable to ascertain any “pattern of behavior” and that the suspension “smacks of retaliation.”
“I will not be surprised if this matter ends up being litigated,” Jackowski said. “While the sheriff was able to rid himself of a Democrat primary opponent by offering him a job, he couldn’t do that with respect to Snow.”
Why is Snow on leave?
The sheriff’s and county attorney’s offices have declined to confirm or provide his suspension letter, citing personnel policy. A pending records request filed by KHOL for all records relating to Snow’s suspension has been received by the county clerk’s office.
In a press release, Snow states that he was cited for a policy called “fail to act” related to an arrest he made early on Oct. 21. Court records show he pulled over a Driggs, Idaho, woman for speeding and, after being told she was on release for a June DUI, administered a portable breath test, which showed her blood alcohol level to be more than twice the legal limit.
Despite that result, Snow did not conduct a DUI investigation. That would have included a field test investigating signs of intoxication, such as a field sobriety test. Snow said that omission led to his suspension.
“I know I’m under the microscope,” Snow said. “So, I chose the path that had the strongest legal foundation to support the arrest.”
Snow instead charged the Idaho woman for violating her previous DUI release order. A defense attorney, he said, could “not argue with a release order violation. You can argue with the DUI.”
Carr declined to comment on how he viewed the case, but said his office is treating Snow as it would any deputy. Lt. Mark Priest, second-in-command at the sheriff’s office, put Snow on leave.
“Every single arrest that our deputies make, every report they write, everything they do, we look at it. We look at everything. We’re not just picking out Eric’s,” Priest told KHOL.
Snow felt his actions have been under more scrutiny since a July arrest he made, he told KHOL. The sheriff’s office referred that arrest to the state for an independent evaluation. The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, in turn, advised elevating the case to the FBI, which determined it did not meet the threshold for a civil rights violation, the sheriff’s office said.
Snow stands by the arrest of a Jackson man, whom he charged with speeding and arrested on suspicion of drug-impaired driving, he said.
“[If] you’ve got somebody who’s demonstrating impairment, getting them off the road is the right choice,” Snow said. Jackowski added that the evidence of impairment dissipates over time.
A field breath test and evaluation by a drug recognition expert found no evidence of impairment. Snow said the sheriff’s office declined his request to test the man’s blood for drugs beyond what the state typically looks into. Carr said the blood is preserved and had been tested for “everything in the world.” Snow declined to state which other drugs he wanted to test for.
Snow’s expertise called into question
In his press release, Snow claims that Priest tried to have him “decertified” as a drug recognition expert after Snow ran advertisements highlighting the credentials.
But a phone recording requested by KHOL and provided by the county shows a more complicated request related to Snow’s July arrest.
In a recording from Sept. 21, months after the first DUI arrest, Priest talked to Lt. Evan Storch for about eight minutes. Storch, who is with the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, runs the state’s drug recognition expert training. Storch trained Snow.
In the recording, Priest asks Storch to advise Snow to pause conducting DRE evaluations, not outright revoke his ability to do so, until the end of the election or until the Jackson man’s case “clears up.”
Defense attorneys had “latched onto” a newspaper article covering questions about Snow’s July arrest, Priest said, and at least one party had chosen to exclude Snow’s testimony from a pending case.
“His supervisors immediately noticed it was not a good arrest. There was not any probable cause there,” Priest told Storch in the recorded call. “I’m trying to avoid making him look bad.”
In response, Storch told Priest he wouldn’t decertify Snow without having “definitive details” but that he would give Snow “some advice about how to proceed.”
Reached by phone, Storch told KHOL that he was surprised to be asked to intervene with Snow’s capacities “so close to the election.” He said “nothing” in Snow’s July case “would give me pause to decertify Snow.” He declined further comment.
In the recorded call, Priest acknowledged that the request was a “very slippery slope” during the election season.
Many sheriff’s deputies appear to back Carr
In his interview with KHOL, Snow accused Carr of violating a Wyoming law that prohibits a public official or employee from using “public funds, time, personnel, facilities or equipment for political or campaign activity.”
Snow claims that has happened several times, including at a GOP-sponsored sheriff’s debate on Oct. 5 where more than a dozen officers stood and sat in the back of the library auditorium. Dressed in uniform, the officers clapped intermittently after the two-term incumbent spoke. GOP moderators asked them to hold their applause, though some later continued.
“What you witnessed at the Republican debate was a crime on the part of the sheriff,” Snow said. “By him asking everyone to be there, that’s misuse of office.”
Carr said he didn’t ask deputies to attend.
“I was [as] surprised as anyone,” Carr said.
Snow said on-duty deputies should not have attended the forum.
“If you’re getting paid by the taxpayer, you shouldn’t be going to a political event,” Snow said.
Lt. Priest confirmed deputies were not asked to attend, adding that he himself is a Republican, who grew up in Wyoming.
“Everybody wanted to be there,” Priest said.
