Authorities are alleging that a group of Northwest College students broke into a former school building in Byron last month and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage.

According to charging documents, investigators believe seven young people were involved in a pair of break-ins that took place in the early morning hours of Sept. 27 and 30. As of Tuesday, charges had been filed against three NWC students: 20-year-old Mack R. Page of Worland, 19-year-old Isaiah M. Halverson of Sacramento, California, and 19-year-old Teslock “Tessi” Thong of Melbourne, Australia. All three are members of the men’s basketball team.

Halverson and Page are alleged to have entered and vandalized the building on Sept. 27 and 30. They each face eight felony counts, including burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, theft and property destruction.

Thong is alleged to have joined his teammates for the Sept. 30 break-in and is charged with felony counts of burglary and property destruction.

Authorities in Big Horn County obtained warrants for the three men last week. Powell police arrested Halverson and Page on campus on Monday, and took Thong into custody Wednesday morning.

“It is an ongoing investigation and there have been additional names forwarded to the county attorney for consideration of prosecution,” Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn said in an interview.

He added that “all persons are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and I don’t want anybody jumping to conclusions.”

“There’s still a lot of things that have to be sorted out in this case,” he said.

For example, the sheriff told the Lovell Chronicle that there actually were three break-ins at the old school that week: Before the college students allegedly trespassed, he said a group of 18 high-school-aged students had gone into the building, though he said there was no indication that they caused the damage.

Blackburn added that an initial estimate provided by the owner indicated it could cost around $200,000 to clean up the building.

“So it’s a pretty big deal,” he said.

The 76,500 square foot facility, which sits along Byron’s main street, formerly was the home of Rocky Mountain High School. After a new high school opened in Cowley in 2010, the facility was sold into private hands. While portions of the building have been vacant over the years and entered before, it’s in active use; Gold N’ Humates Oro Gro 307 uses the building to produce an agricultural product that supplements fertilizers.

“Irregardless of what may have been done in the past, this is considered private property, and it would be like anybody else going into someone’s home or place of business,” Blackburn said, adding that, “It’s unfortunate that the actions of a few, whoever they may be …, tend to ruin it for everybody down the road.”

The first break-in was discovered on Sept. 29, when the property’s caretaker noticed that multiple doors were propped open and called authorities. Responding Big Horn County Sheriff’s Deputy Keri Angell found that a fire extinguisher had been sprayed down multiple hallways, all over the floor and bleachers in the former gym and in “numerous other places in the building.”

Cans of paint had been splattered on a wall, the floor and some shelves, while a window in the former wood and welding shop had been shattered, Angell wrote in an affidavit.

“It appeared that the suspects had thrown billiard balls through an inside glass window, breaking the glass in multiple places,” the deputy wrote.

Elsewhere, she said, it looked like the suspects climbed onto a storage balcony and dropped tires onto a wood and metal table, destroying it. In the school’s former library, books and magazines had been scattered and torn apart.

A walkthrough also revealed that someone had twisted off a lock to get into a secure room, where a catalytic converter used in the manufacturing process of the farming product was found missing, Angell wrote. The device is valued at more than $2,000, according to the affidavit.

A review of security camera footage showed four people — two males and two females — had entered the former school early on Sept. 27, the affidavit says. Though the affidavit doesn’t offer any details, Angell said she eventually learned the two males were Halverson and Page.

She alleges Halverson was the one who threw a paint can at an office window, while Page pushed the tires onto the table; both sprayed the fire extinguisher throughout the building, according to the affidavit.

Less than a day later, while the investigation was continuing, the building was vandalized again. In the early hours of Sept. 30, individuals broke out a window to get into the facility, then beat holes in the cinder block walls, punched out ceiling tiles and sprayed at least two more fire extinguishers around the building, Angell wrote.

The affidavit says five people entered the old school on the second trip, including Halverson and Page. The two athletes declined to speak with Angell, but they did speak with NWC Athletic Director Brian Erickson, who shared their accounts with the deputy.

While Erickson had no information about the two females from the Sept. 27 incident, he said Page and Halverson had offered that “they had taken several of their NWC basketball teammates with them” on Sept. 30, according to the affidavit. Erickson identified one of the suspects as Thong and gave a possible ID for a fourth suspect, who has not been charged.

NWC officials said they would not be commenting on the case.

Thong and Halverson remained in the Big Horn County Detention Center in Basin on Wednesday afternoon, while Page was released after making bail. All three are awaiting preliminary hearings.