Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, August 12 for his monthly report. Sheriff Johnson touched on the Trump Administration considering a reclassification of marijuana and what that would mean for local law enforcement should it take place. Johnson also updated on other cases such as the ATM burglaries in Thayne and Alpine, a hit and run incident in Alpine, and ongoing scams impacting local residents.

(0:00) And joining me live in studio for his monthly report is Lincoln County (0:03) Sheriff Shane Johnson. (0:04) Good morning, Sheriff Johnson. (0:05) How are you today? Good.
How are you? (0:07) Doing well. Doing well. (0:08) Appreciate your time, as always.
(0:10) And I’m happy to be here. (0:11) Plenty going on, of course, across Lincoln County. (0:13) And I want to start out with our texting topic today.
(0:16) We’ve been discussing marijuana and comments made by President Trump yesterday (0:20) on possibly reclassifying it from a Schedule one down to a Schedule three. (0:26) From a law enforcement perspective, maybe give us (0:29) some some more information on what that means (0:32) when you guys are working with with drugs like that. (0:35) So I it’s not legalization.
(0:38) So that’s good, because I’m I’m totally opposed to that. (0:43) It’s basically saying there may be some medicinal value and treat it that way. (0:47) You know, the money, the waters have been muddied so much by (0:51) what the federal government has done by not enforcing any of us.
(0:55) You have states that have just legalized it, even though it’s still illegal. (0:59) At a federal level. (1:00) And so it’s it’s kind of muddied the waters.
(1:02) But I mean, I think that there’s (1:08) that the possibility exists, there’s some medicinal value there. (1:11) It’s not found by, in my opinion, by smoking it. (1:15) It’s that’s not how to treat it.
(1:17) There’s high incidence of mental illness when you use it heavily. (1:21) And so these places that have just legalized it (1:25) and turned it into a recreational type thing, I think, is (1:28) is not helpful to the youth. (1:32) It’s not helpful to the communities.
(1:34) It oftentimes turns you into a (1:38) unambitious person. (1:40) So there’s a lot of problems with it. (1:42) I guess the fact that it’s not legalization, it’s still a controlled (1:47) substance is, is I think the main point there.
(1:51) I I think the tendency to view it as (1:56) it’s maybe this thought about (2:01) change in the category is kind of given it the green light. (2:06) Maybe that’s not the right way to look at it. (2:07) It’s still a controlled substance and it should be treated that way.
(2:10) You know, I think about it was a number of months ago (2:13) that the Cokeville Police Department pulled over a semi in Cokeville (2:18) and just happened to find quite a bit of of marijuana. (2:21) Yeah. And and so there was a drug bus made there.
(2:25) What would the difference be? (2:27) And the people in possession spent some quality time (2:30) in the Kemmer correctional facility over that. (2:33) So what would the difference be if it was reclassified (2:36) down to a Schedule three in that in an instant like that? (2:39) Well, so. The (2:43) the only difference really would come at the federal level (2:46) if you’re charged with a federal crime, it’s still illegal in Wyoming.
(2:50) It still would be charged with a (2:54) statute violation in Wyoming. (2:56) So there’s not a change there. (2:59) If you were charged federally, then then there may be some changes (3:03) in minimum mandatory sentencing or something like that.
(3:06) Is it as compared to heroin or cocaine or (3:11) so from a local standpoint, there’s not going to be much change. (3:16) It’ll still be pursued (3:19) as an illegal substance. (3:21) It still is at the federal level.
(3:25) There may be some changes for big traffickers. (3:28) Again, the the waters are so muddied on this because (3:33) it’s marijuana is unique because you can go to another state and buy it. (3:38) And then you and then you drive through Wyoming with it and get arrested for it.
(3:42) And you can buy it legally in another state. (3:45) You know, another thing that’s always in my mind been real problematic is, you know, (3:53) the medical marijuana, you know, (3:55) where else you get a subscription for from a doctor and it says, use this for a year, (4:01) use as much as you want or as little as you want. (4:03) And in a year, let’s I’ll write you another one.
(4:06) I mean, it’s just it’s a mess and it needs to be cleaned up. (4:09) And maybe President Trump’s going to, you know, (4:12) this is part of cleaning that up because there’s some definitely (4:15) some things need to be done. (4:17) We’ll see what how it all goes.
We’ll see how it all happens. (4:19) So we can kind of Sheriff Shane Johnson in studio this morning (4:22) for the weekday wake up. (4:23) I noticed that Captain Brian Andrews has become a popular figure for scammers.
(4:29) It happened. (4:31) It happened a year or two ago, and it sounds like it’s happening again. (4:34) People impersonating Captain Brian Andrews (4:37) with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office asking for donations.
(4:39) Yeah, it’s it’s. (4:42) It’s a it’s frustrating, you know. (4:45) So someone can get on.
(4:48) The Internet, look up our department, find out who works there (4:53) and then get a digital number, a Google phone number or something (4:57) and start making calls and representing themselves as a member of our department (5:01) and doing everything from, (5:05) you know, saying you got a warrant and you need to pay it immediately (5:08) and we’ll take your credit card number or you go buy a gift card (5:11) or, you know, saying where, you know, you got to do this (5:16) within a certain amount of time, we’re going to come arrest you. (5:19) It’s been it’s always happened. (5:21) The IRS, you know, there’s been scammers using the IRS (5:24) as a scare tactic to to commit fraud on people.
(5:29) And it’s pretty common. (5:30) I guess my overall comment on that is (5:34) we don’t call people and solicit money over the phone, even the (5:38) and I get these all the time, this (5:42) the the police and Highway Patrol Association looking looking for donations. (5:48) I’ve never received our agency in the 18 plus years (5:53) I’ve been in this position, have never received any money from these (5:57) people that call and ask you to support, you know, to (6:01) support our support to blue, back to blue, give some money.
(6:04) That money doesn’t ever go to local. (6:06) So don’t do it. (6:07) There’s there’s local ways to if you want to be supportive that way, (6:11) there’s local ways to do it, but don’t respond to calls for that.
(6:15) And any. Anybody that’s calling and and trying to get information (6:22) from you or telling you that you’re in trouble and then tells you (6:26) don’t call law enforcement and don’t tell your spouse, don’t tell anybody else. (6:29) It’s a scam.
(6:32) You’re you’re you’re always better off to hang up. (6:36) Don’t engage with them. (6:37) Call the sheriff’s office, report it.
(6:41) But it’s it’s amazing. (6:44) They get real, real creative in there and they’re pretty good at it. (6:47) And it’s successful.
(6:48) That’s why it’s still going on. (6:50) So it’s it’s really disheartening because they target oftentimes (6:56) people who can least afford it, the elderly and that are more (7:01) maybe more susceptible. (7:02) They don’t understand that.
(7:04) I mean, this this is a 307 number, so it’s got to be someone from around here. (7:08) But, you know, there’s there’s a lot of ways to try and trick people. (7:12) And like I said, it’s it’s successful.
(7:13) But just be careful that don’t there’s (7:18) no downside to ending the conversation, calling the sheriff’s office and saying, (7:22) OK, this is what’s happened to me. What do I do? (7:28) And basically, 100 percent of the time we’re going to tell you it’s a scam. (7:32) Right.
Because that’s what it is. (7:33) We don’t we don’t operate that way. (7:36) The IRS doesn’t operate that way.
(7:38) Highway Patrol doesn’t operate that. We don’t call you. (7:40) We don’t we don’t ask for gift cards in exchange for payment.
(7:43) We don’t ask you to go to your bank and and make a withdrawal and or wire money. (7:49) So shut it down from the very beginning. (7:52) Just hang up on them.
(7:53) Sheriff Shane Johnson in the studio this morning on the weekday wake up. (7:57) A couple incidents happening recently that we can follow up on. (8:00) It was earlier this month on August 3rd, (8:03) I believe, on Sunday evening hit and run incident on County Road 100 in Alpine.
(8:08) Any any updates there? (8:09) Yeah, we’re working that case. (8:12) We’re using. (8:15) Looking at cameras in the area to see if we can find a vehicle, (8:19) but we do know from evidence that was left at the scene that that it’s a 2007, (8:24) 2008 Chevy or GMC diesel.
(8:28) So there was parts from the vehicle left at the scene. (8:31) So we’re following up on that. (8:34) And we got our detective Gardner working on that.
(8:38) So he’s pretty successful. (8:40) So we’ll keep working that. (8:42) But if you do have information, call the sheriff’s office.
Excellent. (8:46) And also, we’ve we’ve talked about this case a couple of times, (8:50) the ATM burglaries and a couple of rest of it made in that. (8:52) But last we talked about it, you said that there might still be others involved.
(8:56) Any any is that investigation still open? (8:58) So I think we talked about I don’t know that there’s anything (9:01) there’s no new arrest there. (9:03) We still have a warrant for a for an individual that’s sitting in jail (9:07) in Montana that we’re going to extradite as soon as they’re done with him there. (9:11) And we still have two locally here that are working their way (9:14) through the court system.
(9:16) And so these we believe that these incidents are tied. (9:19) And we’ve been in touch with (9:22) authorities from Montana, Utah, Colorado, (9:26) Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and of course, (9:28) have interacted with the FBI on this that we think are all related. (9:33) So my expectation still is that that this case (9:38) and our arrest will turn into solving a lot of them, not necessarily.
(9:44) I can’t say necessarily that our specific guys are involved, but the group (9:49) that come from a group or a gang that’s that’s doing these burglaries. (9:54) And so we expect that there’ll be a lot of them solved by the work (9:57) that’s been done here, which is which is encouraging. Absolutely.
(10:02) Sheriff, want to give a shout out to our local volunteer (10:05) firemen across all of Lincoln County. (10:07) There’s been a number of small brush fires that have popped up. (10:11) There is one just east of Kemmerer just yesterday, in fact.
(10:13) And they’ve done a considering the conditions. (10:16) They’ve done a fantastic job hopping right on those things. (10:19) Yeah, they do a great job.
(10:21) They’re they’re committed. (10:22) The volunteer groups, fire departments, search and rescue. (10:26) Great people.
(10:28) Hard workers have jobs like you and me and then volunteer to go out (10:33) and do that kind of stuff as well on the side to make the community a better place. (10:37) So, yeah, shout out to them. Do a great job.
(10:39) And it’s the fire danger right now is pretty high. (10:42) It’s pretty dry. Be careful.
(10:43) I think I got the email yesterday that there are some restrictions (10:48) put in place now about open fire. (10:50) So kind of expected that to happen. (10:52) We need some rain.
Yeah. (10:54) Yeah, a little rain would be nice. (10:55) Sheriff Shane Johnson this morning on the weekday wake up.
(10:58) Anything else we missed you wanted to bring up today? (11:00) I think that’s it. Appreciate the opportunity to come in. (11:03) Yep.
That’s Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson this morning. (11:05) It’s the weekday wake up on the SBI radio network.