Park County authorities say a Florida man jumped bail while awaiting trial on a felony sex crime. As a result, the man’s mother is set to lose the $25,000 she posted last fall to get him out of jail.

Emmanuel C. Birdens, 35, is alleged to have exposed his genitals and tried subjecting an elderly woman to a sex act at a Cody store in late August. He faces a felony count of attempted third-degree sexual assault and a misdemeanor count of public indecency, both of which he has formally denied.

After spending several weeks in jail, Birdens was released from the Park County Detention Center in late September, when his mother put up $25,000 for his bail.

While out on bond, Birdens was ordered to stay in Wyoming, appear for all court hearings and keep in contact with his court-appointed attorney. However, he reportedly dropped out of touch with his lawyer by early January. That prompted Park County prosecutors to move to revoke his bond and District Court Judge Bill Simpson to issue an arrest warrant.

At a Feb. 28 hearing — where Birdens failed to appear — Simpson ordered that the $25,000 worth of bail money be forfeited to the state government.

The judge ruled that Birdens “willfully” violated his bond conditions on what’s charged as “a very serious crime.”

“The defendant has apparently left the jurisdiction, or he has certainly not complied with the bond,” Simpson said.

The charges

Court records say Birdens is a resident of Hobe Sound, Florida, but he worked in Yellowstone National Park last summer as a seasonal employee.

He came under investigation on Aug. 28, after a Cody Walmart employee reported that a man — later identified as Birdens — had exposed himself in the store.

When Walmart personnel and Cody police later reviewed surveillance footage, they found that Birdens had apparently followed a 79-year-old woman while touching his genitals. He eventually came within a few inches of the woman and, with a cellphone in hand, appeared to openly masturbate before walking away, charging documents say; the woman was apparently unaware of what he was doing.

Cody police arrested Birdens on Sept. 3 and he allegedly admitted that he had unsuccessfully tried to ejaculate onto the woman. He reportedly explained that “it was about the ‘thrill’” and was “something he has seen in pornography and he wanted to try it,” Cody Det. Tyler Eubanks recounted in an affidavit.

With the third-degree sexual assault charge, prosecutors allege that Birdens tried to subject the elderly patron to sexual contact.

At a preliminary hearing in Park County Circuit Court in mid-September, Birdens’ court-appointed attorney, Travis Smith, argued that the alleged conduct didn’t fit the assault statute and should be dismissed. Smith later said that the way the state charged the crime is “a bit, I’ll use the term ‘novel.’”

“I think everybody kind of agreed with that” at the preliminary hearing, Smith added, though he noted Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah ultimately agreed to let the charge proceed toward a trial in district court.

Arguing over bond

Smith made the remarks during a Sept. 29 arraignment in district court, where Birdens pleaded not guilty. At that time, the defense attorney asked Simpson to lower Birdens’ bond from the $25,000 cash figure set by Judge Darrah to $25,000 cash or surety.

While admitting his client didn’t have strong ties to the area, Smith said Birdens had no prior criminal history and he noted the disputed nature of the sexual assault charge.

However, Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Marina Tucker opposed a reduction, largely citing the seriousness of the case.

“It is alarming to the state that Mr. Birdens would be conducting himself in such a manner in broad daylight in a very public location without any concern for the ramifications of that,” Tucker said. “It leads to concerns about his ability to control his behavior or his judgment.”

She also mentioned a potential pattern of behavior: Charging documents say a search of Birdens’ phone turned up three videos that bore similarities to the August incident at Walmart. Two videos that appeared to have been recorded at the Cody store in May showed Birdens closely following a different woman while another from June showed him walking up behind another woman while she walked along a trail in Yellowstone, police said.

Additionally, Tucker also noted the Floridian’s lack of connections to the area, saying she had “some concerns about him being a flight risk.”

Judge Simpson echoed the prosecutor’s concerns about Birdens’ minimal contacts in Wyoming and the “obviously quite serious” allegations. He left the bond at $25,000 cash only.

A mother’s money

However, Birdens was released a short time later, after his mother — who’d flown in from Florida — delivered a $25,000 cashier’s check to the Park County Clerk of District Court, according to public records and testimony.

When Tucker moved to have the bond revoked and the cash forfeited to the state in January, the clerk’s office mailed all the relevant paperwork to Birdens’ mother. Deputy Park County Clerk of District Court Karen Herburger also called the Florida woman more than an hour ahead of the Feb. 26 hearing, informing her that she could participate by phone or video; that would have given the woman the opportunity to ask for some or all of her money back.

However, Birdens’ mother “told me that basically his [Birdens’] actions kind of speak for itself, and she really had nothing more to say,” Herburger testified at a hearing.

After hearing the clerk’s testimony, Judge Simpson ordered that the $25,000 be turned over to the state to be distributed to Park County’s public school districts.

Birdens’ case had been set to go to trial in early February, but the case is now on hold until he’s taken into custody.