Kirk Ohman

An attempt to arrest a Powell man earlier this month turned into a chase that only ended when he crashed his motorcycle, according to charging documents.

Kirk A. Ohman has remained in custody since the June 3 chase, in which he and a pursuing officer reportedly hit speeds of 60 miles an hour on one of Powell’s 25 mph streets.

Ohman is facing three misdemeanor charges from the incident — including fleeing or eluding police — while prosecutors seek to revoke his probation from an earlier felony case.

Both the Park County Attorney’s Office and District Court Judge Bill Simpson expressed frustration with Ohman at a court hearing last week, noting the 31-year-old’s prior run-ins with the law.

Since mid-December, Ohman is alleged to have pawned a stolen chainsaw, stolen gasoline from vehicles at an auto parts yard and repeatedly used drugs, all while on probation from earlier convictions.

“I’m frustrated because I don’t know what else we can do, Mr. Ohman,” Simpson said at a June 12 hearing. “You have been given opportunities, many opportunities. Frankly, you haven’t taken advantage of them. … Your addiction is no doubt the controlling influence of your life, to your detriment.”

At the hearing, Deputy Park County Attorney Laura Newton said she has a bulletin board in her office that contains a list of roughly 20 prior convictions for Ohman, but it’s one particular case from late December at the center of the current trouble. 

On the night of Dec. 30, Powell police spotted an unusual vehicle parked behind an auto scrap yard on East Washington Street, where a series of thefts had been reported.

Officers caught Ohman emerging from the fenced yard, wearing a headlamp in the darkness and with a 5-gallon gas can in one hand and a cordless drill in the other.

Initially unsure of who was there and what he had in his hands, Sgt. Dustin DelBiaggio pulled his gun on the suspect and ordered him to put his hands up; Ohman complied and apologized, according to an affidavit DelBiaggio composed in support of the charges. As he was later being handcuffed, Ohman reportedly said, “[Expletive], it’s just some gas.”

The affidavit quotes Ohman as later asserting that he was broke and “needed some gas to go see my kids.”

He admitted to drilling holes in the tanks of two vehicles parked in the scrap yard and said he’d gotten the idea from another Powell man, who made numerous similar thefts. The other man has not been charged.

Ohman was arrested at the scene, but the charges were soon dropped. In February, however, Ohman was arrested on allegations that he had pawned a stolen Stihl chainsaw in mid-December. He was released from the Cody jail on bond on Feb. 23, but was immediately rearrested when police found him at a Cody bar. Ohman explained that he’d drank part of beer while waiting for a ride from Cody back to Powell, but that violated the terms of his probation from a prior case, in which he’d been prohibited from being in bars or drinking alcohol. 

“I pointed out all of the other places he could have waited and still have been in compliance with his probation terms,” Cody Police Officer Trevor Budd wrote in an affidavit. “Ohman was then placed under arrest despite his requests to ‘not go back to jail.’”

The next day, on Feb. 24, prosecutors moved to revoke earlier probation for five failed drug tests in January and February. They also refiled the case related to the gas thefts from Powell scrap yard, ultimately leading to a conviction on a felony count of possession of burglar’s tools and misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and property destruction. On April 5, Ohman was placed on three years of supervised probation, with terms that included completing the Park County Court Supervised Treatment Program.

At sentencing, “your honor was very clear that there’s zero tolerance and that we weren’t going to play around with this,” Newton recounted to Judge Simpson at last week’s hearing. “And instead he has done nothing but violate your direct order[s].”

She presented evidence that Ohman failed nearly all of his drug tests between mid-April and late May and failed to pay any of the $5,500 he owes the owner of the scrap yard.

“He’s taken this incredibly lightly,” Newton said of Ohman.

The prosecutor also expressed frustration with the drug court program for not taking action or informing her when Ohman violated the conditions of his probation.

“What would have been appropriate is that … within that first week, maybe two that he continued to show positive for IV drug use that immediately he was reassessed in order to receive residential treatment,” Newton said.

Ohman’s court-appointed attorney, Sam Krone, countered that drug court officials were in the process of sanctioning Ohman and sending him to an inpatient treatment program when Newton sought to revoke his probation.

That motion came on May 31, after Newton learned that a Powell police officer had found a small amount of marijuana and numerous used syringes in Ohman’s Seventh Street apartment. A convicted felon was also temporarily living with Ohman, who had been barred from having controlled substances in his home or associating with felons.

A warrant was issued for Ohman’s arrest and Sgt. DelBiaggio spotted him exiting the Pit Stop #11 parking lot around 7:30 p.m. on June 3. When DelBiaggio tried to pull him over, Ohman fled and a chase began. In the process, Ohman dropped a bag that allegedly contained several empty syringes and one loaded with approximately 30 milliliters of a clear liquid that officers suspected to be a controlled substance.

He later cut through the Absaroka Inc. parking lot on East Seventh Street and headed south on Ingalls Street. While in pursuit, DelBiaggio hit 60 mph on the 25 mph street, and the motorcycle “was traveling approximately the same speed,” the officer wrote.

Ohman eventually crashed while trying to turn from Ingalls onto East Third Street. He was checked out at Powell Valley Hospital and booked into jail.

At his initial appearance in Park County Circuit Court on June 5, Newton described Ohman’s flight from law enforcement as “incredibly dangerous” and asked for bond to be set at $10,000.

When asked for his response to the prosecutor’s bond recommendation, Ohman demurred.

“I kind of knew that was coming,” he said.

“I’m sorry we keep seeing each other, Mr. Ohman,” Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah said as he adopted the $10,000 figure. “I mean that sincerely.”

That bond has since been reduced to a signature bond, but only because another $10,000 bond remains in place in the probation revocation case in District Court.

At the June 12 hearing, Krone asked for his client to be released to an inpatient drug treatment program.

“It’s been a long, tortured path for Mr. Ohman,” Krone said. “He’s had difficulties with substances for quite a while, but he’s never really had an opportunity to have long term inpatient treatment.”

Judge Simpson, however, sided with Newton, expressing doubts that Ohman would actually complete such a program.

“We try to give individuals the benefit of the doubt,” Simpson said. “But there comes a time when we reach the end of the road. And we’re pretty close, if we’re not already there.”

The judge left Ohman’s $10,000 bond in place, though he indicated he might allow a release to a treatment program at a later date.