Tyler Smith

After urinating on a Meeteetse resident’s property, resisting Park County Sheriff’s deputies and making an ill-fated attempt to escape through the ceiling of a hospital bathroom, a man is headed to prison.

Tyler G. Smith, a 35-year-old transient, recently pleaded guilty to five criminal counts for his actions in the June incident. In-line with a plea agreement, Park County District Court Judge Bill Simpson imposed a 30- to 48-month prison sentence for a felony count of property destruction, plus misdemeanor counts of breach of peace, criminal trespassing, driving with a suspended license and driving with no auto insurance.

“I hope you’ve learned from this experience,” Simpson told the defendant at an Oct. 30 hearing. “You’re young, still have a lot of life ahead of you, but if you continue to engage in this stupidity, … life is going to be pretty short and you’ll always know where you’re going to be staying — because that’ll be the Wyoming Department of Corrections or another comparable prison facility.”

Smith said he understood.

Disturbing a family

The bizarre series of events began late on the afternoon of June 18, when Smith pulled his motorcycle into a family’s driveway just off Wyo. Highway 120, south of Meeteetse.

According to the residents, Smith claimed he was “trying to find Meeteetse for his daughter’s birthday, was cold, needed money and [was] being confrontational,” Sheriff’s Deputy David Schlenker wrote in an affidavit. 

Smith reportedly peeled out in the driveway multiple times and urinated on it while becoming “increasingly agitated,” the affidavit says; one of the residents warned dispatchers that her husband was “preparing to defend himself.”

Schlenker arrived about 10 minutes after the initial call and found Smith to be uncooperative and carrying the “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.” A mostly consumed pint of Black Velvet whiskey was later found in the motorcycle.

The deputy said he eventually had to pull Smith off the bike and — after an unsuccessful attempt to use a Taser — take him to the ground. Several people at the scene helped the deputy cuff the suspect, the affidavit says.

Smith was erratic and emotional, the deputy wrote, initially refusing to give his name, then falsely gave his brother’s name and date of birth. (Records show Smith later went as far as to fill out court paperwork with his sibling's name.)

Trouble at the hospital

Before being booked into the Park County Detention Center, Smith was taken to Cody Regional Health’s emergency room to have pain in his arm checked out. At the ER, Smith said he needed to go use the restroom, but Cpl. Tyler Patterson caught the suspect “attempting to climb out of the bathroom ceiling in an attempt to escape.” Smith then “crashed down to the ground,” causing well over $1,000 worth damage to the ceiling and HVAC system in the process, Patterson wrote in affidavit.

After some more scuffling, Smith was “escorted … to the floor” by Patterson and handcuffed again.

“I’m so sorry dude. I’m done, I swear,” Smith reportedly told the deputy. “I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. I’ve been watching too much Cops [the reality TV show].”

Smith was then cuffed to a bed for the duration of his check-up. While deputies wanted to take a blood sample and check his alcohol levels, “it was determined that with Smith’s uncooperative and dangerous behavior it was best [to] not stay at the hospital,” Schlenker wrote.

Smith has prior convictions for driving under the influence, and was originally charged with DUI in this case. However, his court-appointed defense attorney, Sarah Miles, said a blood test “was lost somehow in the mail or in transition from one place to another.” That left prosecutors without enough evidence to prove the allegation.

A continuing case

The DUI and four other criminal counts — including a felony charge of attempting to escape from official detention — were dropped in the deal. However, the sentence might not have ended Smith’s legal troubles, as authorities in Missoula County, Montana, are still seeking his arrest.

Court records indicate that in January, Smith failed to show up in Missoula for a sentencing on 2020 charges that included a felony conviction for driving while under the influence of alcohol for a fourth or subsequent time; Missoula County records indicate that a warrant remains active.

As of Monday, Smith remained in custody at the Park County Detention Center, continuing to await transport to the state prison system. The roughly six months he’s already served in jail will count toward his 30- to 48-month prison sentence.

At October’s sentencing hearing, Simpson said it was obvious that Smith needed some help, and he expressed hope that the department of corrections could give Smith that help.

Smith said he planned to enroll in some prison classes, “to give me the tools that I need to live and be a productive citizen of America.”