Law ‘about as clear as mud’ - Attorneys disagree on language of outfitting statute

When in April 2016 the Park County Attorney’s Office charged Jim Pehringer with eight misdemeanor counts of professional guiding without a license on the Antlers Ranch in the fall of 2013, the Cody man hired Powell attorney Joey Darrah.  Pehringer’s case, however, did not go to trial. Instead, he accepted a plea deal. In December 2016, he entered a no contest plea to one count of illegal guiding, paid a $1,040 fine and walked out of circuit court prepared to put the years of turmoil in the past. In return, Park County prosecutor Brandon Vilos dropped the other seven charges. With the case settled, Darrah shared his thoughts about the charges, saying the county attorney never had a case because his client’s actions did not meet conditions outlined in state statute. “I don’t believe Jim Pehringer did anything wrong at all,” he said. Rather, he said his client was the victim of “some strange relationships” with the Game and Fish and Wyoming’s guides and outfitters law that’s “all over the place” and “about as clear as mud.” From a legal standpoint, some of it made no sense, he said. “It’s hard to make heads or tails of the statutes,” Darrah said. “Some say one thing and others say something else. But how do you interpret it?” Wyoming Statute 23-2-401 says landowners may guide hunters on their property without an outfitting license. They may also authorize nonresident hunting without a guide. In Pehringer’s situation, Meeteetse rancher Sam May asked him to set up an elk management plan on the Antlers Ranch and to show nonresident hunters where to hunt on ranch property. “In this case, Jim was only acting on behalf of the landowners and he got charged for it,” Darrah said. The attorney would like to see legislators rewrite the law so it better addresses the conditions under which a guide or outfitter license is required, particularly when someone is acting as a landowner agent...MORE