Town Mayor responds to accusations of publicity stunt

At the December 5 Thermopolis Town Council meeting held at Town Hall Mayor Adam Estenson opened the meeting and tehn asked if there were any public comments during citizen participation.

Jason Bowman stood and said, “I’d just like to speak to this most recent, what I call a publicity stunt by the chief of police. Calling in the officer that was on leave, I think, was uncalled for. I do feel that you guys are the oversight for the police department. The two officers that I feel did their job in this were barely mentioned in the press release for the newspaper article. I feel like that’s not the right thing to do here. A lot of people are coming to me in town. They’re losing faith. They’re losing faith in the governing of the police department. I’m here just to voice their opinion and kind of let you guys know what’s being said around town if you haven’t already heard. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but you know, this is the oversight, in my opinion. This is the only forum I have to really get anything done, to just come talk to you people.”

Bowman continued and said, “I think something needs to be done to kind of keep things in check because I think there’s a good old boy system here. I think that needs to start getting pushed aside. I’ve supervised jobs, I’ve run crews. I can’t be their friends. You know, when you’re somebody’s friend, when it comes to discipline or something like that, you’re not willing to step up and actually do that. So I think there needs to be some sort of maybe even third-party oversight to kind of look over some things and go from there. There are some ideas I have that I would like to present. Maybe at a later date.”

Mayor Estenson replied, “I think the appropriate way for that would be to schedule a meeting with me as the town’s administrator and then go from there. I’ll address a couple of things there. We’re not in charge of what the paper puts, and that’s the First Amendment. So we’re not in charge of that whatsoever. As far as a publicity stunt, it irritates me that you said that.

Bowman said, “That’s my opinion.”

Mayor Estenson continued and said, “That’s fine. But you have two officers in the back right now. They’re patrolling this town, 24 seven virtually alone, because that’s our staff.’

Bowman said, “And I commend them for what they’re doing. I really do.”

Mayor Estenson said, “I’m not going to get into a big argument, but I am going to address that. The chief made a decision to bring someone in and your opinion is that it’s a publicity stunt, I’m going to tell you that it’s not. Take that for what it is. It was a judgment call of the chief and I supported it. I’d love to hear ideas. I want you to know that we’re working on things as well. We’re not just sitting here idling by any means. We don’t have the luxury to be able to state our opinions and say we are working on all these other things, because there are a lot of factors in play.

Bowman said, “I haven’t asked for personal opinions.”

Mayor Estenson said, “Trust the process here as long as you can. Keep doing what you need to do. And definitely, I’d love to hear what you have to say and we’ll set up a time to meet.”

Bowman thanked the Mayor for his time.

Concerned citizen Hubert McAlister asked to speak, and he said, “In response to this gentleman’s statement, sometimes you have to use resources that are available to you whether you want to or not because these resources have become less and less available. And I understand exactly what happened with the situation with Chief Cornwell taking care of what he had to take care of under special situations. Sometimes you have to use those resources. And so I just wanted to bring that up, as I was a fire chief for many years. I understand having to do things you don’t want to do. I do understand that. Thank you, council.”

Mayor Estenson closed the public comments and said that he is getting “a lot of input” and that “we’re still taking it seriously and that it will take time.”

Moving on, Mayor Estenson said that regarding the next snow event, he and Director of Public Works Basil Sorenson will produce a report that outlines the costs involved and present it to the public. 

Town Attorney Marshall Keller presented three ordinances for their second reading. First was a water rate increase from $19.80 to $25.00 per month. Second was to increase the number of bar and grill liquor licenses from two to four. Third was to amend ordinance 864 to correct a typo but doesn’t change the language meaning. The council voted and passed the approval of all three ordinances separately. After passing approval in the third reading, the ordinance will take effect when they are published in the Independent Record. 

The council then went into executive session. Later, Mayor Estenson announced, “In executive session, the council was informed of a Wyoming Public Records Request (WPRR) of body cam footage regarding multiple incidents. The council agreed that it had no reason, per WPRR, to withhold the footage. The council decided in the interest of transparency and obligation to the WPRR that the footage will be released. The footage will be released as soon as the faces of the general public can be protected in the footage. Basically, we don’t want people to be on camera who have nothing to do with the incidents being requested. We will have a formal press release when the footage has been prepared. With our limited staffing, this may take a few weeks. Also wanted to point out that no formal action was taken by the council resulting from the exec session. Release of body cam footage is at the discretion of the Mayor and Chief.”

Mayor Estenson confirmed that the body camera footage was from Sergeant Mike Mascorro’s activities while on duty and that the Peace Officer Standard and Training Commission had already cleared Mascorro in the same footage. The Wyoming Public Records Request was made by Clair McFarland of Cowboy State Daily. 

Follow up

Following the Dec. 5 Town Council meeting, during a phone conversation last Thursday, Mayor Adam Estenson confirmed to the Independent Record that Thermopolis Police Sergeant Michael Mascorro is on administrative duty after being placed on administrative leave in October.

Mascorro is now performing duties within the Thermopolis Police Department offices, but at press time he had not been put back on full patrol duties.

Mascorro had originally been put on administrative leave following an executive session of the Thermopolis Town Council at their October 17 meeting.

At the meeting, Mayor Estenson read the following statement, “On April 28th, 2023, Thermopolis experienced its first officer-involved shooting where a person’s life was lost. This has been difficult for all parties involved and we appreciate the public’s patience during this process. We take this matter seriously.”

He added “The Town and Department have fully cooperated with the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation which released their findings earlier this month. Upon review of the facts and evidence collected by the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation, Special Prosecutor Daniel Erramouspe found no grounds by which to criminally charge Thermopolis Police Sergeant, Michael Mascorro in the shooting death of Buck Laramore.”

Then the statement concluded with “At its regular meeting on October 3, the Town Council was informed that Sergeant Mascorro could be returned to duty upon being medically cleared, per department and employment policy. Sergeant Mascorro is now on administrative leave for an undetermined amount of time.”

The exact date of when officer Mascorro was transferred from administrative leave to administrative duty is not know.

During the same Thursday phone conversation, the Independent Record confirmed to Mayor Adam Estenson that the information that appeared in the Dec. 5 story that Bowman had referred to, was printed as it was presented to us in a press release from the Town of Thermopolis Police Department. No further details had been given.

Regarding the included photo of Sergent Mascorro, it was the photo that was presented for the Independent Record photographer to take when they arrived on scene as the drug investigation was wrapping up.