Authorities are seeking the arrest of a 31-year-old former Cody resident, alleging he stalked the former speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives last summer with harassing messages.

Park County prosecutors charged Conner J. Valcarce last week and alleged he targeted Cody attorney and former state Rep. Colin Simpson and his family.

Prosecutors assert Valcarce was behind a set of ominous emails and online comments — including one that appeared to allude to a “funeral” for Simpson’s son and said “the sins of the father the son must pay in blood.”

All of the statements appear to have been made under assumed names, and court records indicate Cody police were unable to trace them all back to their source or sources. However, charging documents say they obtained records tying one threatening email to Valcarce’s phone.

Valcarce was involved in the Park County Republican Party as a young man, but hasn’t lived in Cody for some time. When questioned by a detective in December, Valcarce reportedly said he was in New York and would help with the investigation in any way he could, but police concluded he was actually
in Connecticut.

The Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged Valcarce with four misdemeanor offenses: stalking, unlawful impersonation through electronic means, unlawful telephone calls and interference with a peace officer. Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah issued a warrant for Valcarce’s arrest last week and it was publicly posted to the Park County Sheriff’s Office’s website on Wednesday.

Contacted by phone on Wednesday, Valcarce expressed surprise about the pending charges in Park County, saying he now lives “out east” and only visits Cody once or twice a year.

“I’ve always liked the Simpsons, so I have no idea where that’s coming from,” he said.

Simpson declined to comment on Wednesday, citing the ongoing case.

A political email

Court records indicate Cody police opened an investigation in June, after a pseudonymous individual sent an accusatory email about Simpson and his family to the chairman of the Park County Republican Party.

The email — purportedly sent by a veteran named “Nick” from Riverton — accused Simpson’s wife of misconduct and criticized Simpson. “Nick” said he’d talked to unnamed friends in Cody who had described Simpson as “a wash up [sic] politician.”

“Also, they told me this guy got kicked out of the house in Wyoming because he [sic] a rino,” the author wrote from a Gmail account named “Joe Riverton.” (Simpson didn’t seek reelection to the House in 2010, making a run for governor instead.)

In the message, the writer reportedly asked Park County GOP Chairman Vince Vanata to “please expose these bastards.”

Vanata, who’s a former Cody police officer, instead passed the message along to his old department. Vanata then encouraged “Nick” to personally get in touch with law enforcement and said he would not “entertain” the politicized comments about Simpson.

“Should you wish to express your political comments to this man [Simpson] I encourage you to do so,” Vanata wrote in his message, which he provided to the Tribune on Wednesday. “I will not be your proxy in this matter.”

Vanata closed by telling the man not to email him again.

After receiving a copy of the message from Vanata, Cody Police Det. Scott Burlingame said he emailed “Nick” and asked for more details about the accusations, but never got a response. Burlingame wrote in an affidavit that it appeared “Nick” had posted the same accusations in a review on a Google page belonging to Simpson’s law firm — and more concerning submissions were reported in the following days.

‘Sincerely your enemy’

On June 10, someone reportedly submitted a tip through the Burg Simpson website that began with the name of Simpson’s son, followed by the word “funeral.”

“... my friend little Bart Simpson got a 22 to the head the sins of the father the son must pay in blood,” the writer continued. “God bless your family, the wonderful Simpson cartoon sincerely your enemy.”

In the blanks for contact information, Burlingame said the submitter appeared to have provided a U.K. resident’s email address and a phone number belonging to Colin Simpson’s sister.

About a week later, on June 18, a similar message was left on Burg Simpson’s Google page.

The one-star review was posted under the name of Simpson’s son and included a picture of the cartoon character Bart Simpson “laying on the floor, with what appears to be simulated blood and brain matter coming out of the character’s head,” Burlingame wrote.

“Little Bart Simpson funeral,” the reviewer wrote in part, adding, “god bless [the name of Simpson’s son] and the whole cartoon Simpson family.”

The writer added that “that’s a lovely home you have at [Simpson’s address]” and mentioned there was “a nice home” at an address located near Simpson’s parents’ residence.

The writer also said he was camping up on Cedar Mountain and indicated that Simpson’s son was “not safe anywhere at any time.”

Burlingame obtained search warrants for the email addresses that had been used to contact Vanata and listed on the Burg Simpson form, but the affidavit indicates he wasn’t able to determine who was behind the messages.

However, fellow Det. Tyler Eubanks reportedly had better luck investigating a threatening email sent to Simpson’s wife: In October, Burlingame learned that data obtained through a search warrant indicated the IP address used to send that email was registered to Valcarce’s cellphone. That piece of information appears to be the lynchpin of the charges.

Poughkeepsie vs. Naugatuck

The detective contacted Valcarce in mid-December, and the suspect reportedly said he was living in Poughkeepsie, New York. When Burlingame asked for proof, Valcarce responded with a photo and a couple videos that showed him walking around outside, the affidavit indicates.

“Here I am in beautiful upstate New York,” he reportedly said in one video, adding that he would help the police investigation in any way possible.

At another point in the footage, Valcarce passed by a campaign sign for a “Bob Mezzo,” and mentions “that it’s Bob Mezzo running, not ‘Bob Berry’, in an attempt to add credibility to the fact that he was not in Cody,” Burlingame wrote. (Berry, of Cody, is active in local Republican politics and has run multiple campaigns.)

Through some internet research, however, Burlingame determined that the Poughkeepsie address Valcarce provided didn’t exist and that Mezzo is actually a candidate for a school board seat in Naugatuck, Connecticut. A subsequent check of Google Maps indicated the videos were actually filmed in Naugatuck, Burlingame said, writing that he was able to pin the location down to a specific street corner.

Naugatuck is about 75 miles from Poughkeepsie and “it is unknown at this time why Conner [Valcarce] would attempt to obfuscate his location,” Burlingame wrote.

Deputy Park County Attorney Larry Eichele filed the set of charges on Feb. 4. 

While the charging information describes the count of misdemeanor stalking as a felony, Eichele told the Tribune that was an error that will be fixed when Valcarce is taken into custody.