Beware, Adams County: A "Sociopath" Will Soon Return to Duty

“I’m a man of faith, and I believe nothing happens without a reason,” insisted Adams County Sheriff Ryan Zollman after Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden placed the state’s imprimatur on the murder of Council rancher Jack Yantis. To the family and friends of the man who had been gunned down without cause by two of his deputies, Zollman recommended that they accept this betrayal with pious stoicism: “Leave this to a higher power watching over us.”

Adams County residents in the habit of praying would be well-advised to petition Providence for protection, and unbelievers who reside there would be wise to take up that habit. Sheriff Zollman is about to unleash a bloody-handed sociopath on the public. 

Lt. Phillips

“He’s startin’ to fit the pattern of a sociopath,” McCall Police Officer Josh Johnson told Lt. Steven Phillips of the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, according to a lengthy – and heavily redacted – interview Phillips gave to two Idaho State Police investigators following the November 1^st shooting.  (That interview begins at page 802 of the 928-page compilation of reports and interviews released by the Idaho AG’s office.) 

The subject of that interview was Adams County Deputy Brian Wood, who along with Deputy Cody Roland unloaded twelve rounds into Yantis on the night of November 1^st after the rancher had been summoned by the sheriff’s office to kill a bull that had been struck by a car on Highway 95. Roland and Wood insist that they acted in self-defense after Yantis supposedly pointed his bolt-action rifle at them. Eyewitnesses, including Yantis’s wife Donna and family friend Rowdy Paradis, report that one of the deputies grabbed the rancher from behind, causing him to stumble, and then the officers shot him in a sudden fit of unaccountable panic.

As Mundanes, Donna Yantis and Mr. Paradis are considered unqualified to testify regarding the exercise of lethal force by two of the state’s consecrated purveyors of sanctified violence. The propriety of an act of state-sanctioned killing is assessed on the basis of the inescapably self-serving “reasonable officer” standard, which is inscrutable to lesser breeds without the badge. 

Deputies Roland and Wood were never in serious jeopardy of criminal prosecution. As is the case in every fatal police shooting, the killers were designated the “victims,” and the man they killed was identified as the “suspect.” Attorney General Wasden’s official letter announcing that no charges would be filed against the killers carefully insinuates that Yantis was an “angry” and drunken man who precipitated his own violent death, and was largely to blame
for it. 

The man they murdered: Yantis with grandchild.

Yantis’s killers have not missed a paycheck since they gunned down the man they had called to help them perform a mildly dangerous task that exceeded their competence.   Sheriff Zollman informed the Idaho Statesman that since Wasden has certified that “the officers did their job and weren’t excessive in doing so,” the killers would soon be returning to duty. 

This means that Brian Wood, who became the subject of an “officer safety alert” following a domestic dispute with his wife last December, will once again be vested with the supposed authority to detain citizens and use lethal force if they refuse to submit. 

“If cops are involved, shots will be fired,” Wood reportedly told William “Chip” Gallagher, his father-in-law. Wood was described as “a highly trained sniper” believed to have “demolition capabilities and access to explosives. 

“I don’t know how much you guys know into [Wood’s] background, but he – he is an advanced, skilled sniper,” Lt. Phillips told ISP investigators. “I mean, I sent him to the FBI academy … their advance sniper school and he came out on top.”

Phillips had made Wood a firearms instructor for the ADSO, and his wife had become close friends with Wood’s now-estranged spouse. Following the shooting, Wood had become separated from his wife, and appeared to descend into something resembling a psychosis. 

On several occasions, Phillips told the ISP, Wood suggested “he was gonna hurt himself … he goes back and forth on either goin’ to another country or killin’ himself.” In at least one of those instances, Phillips recounted, he indicated that he was no longer interested in fleeing to Latin America, but was “talkin’ about blowin’ himself up.”

This December 29^th conversation took place in Phillips’ pickup truck. Worried that Wood was an incipient murder-suicide, Phillips told him that “I’m gonna handle this the law enforcement way…. [W]e’re gonna go ahead and get an endangerment hold on ya.”

At this point, Wood “literally turned in his seat and squared off with me and stuck his hand down by his gun. He says, `There will be gunfire if … we go this route.’” 

That was not the last time Wood threatened to murder fellow law enforcement officers. He also reportedly threatened to kill the family’s dogs. Yet Phillips and other officers allowed him free rein -- which left Phillips’ wife horrified that the preservation of Wood’s Blue Privilege could have lethal consequences for his wife – who was also her close friend. 

“You need to stop lookin’ at this as a … friend helpin’ a friend, and start lookin’ at this as a cop,” his wife chastised him, according to Phillips’ account.  Of course, the problem was precisely that Phillips was acting like a cop – someone loyal to the Blue Tribe – rather than a peace officer acting to protect the public. This might explain why his wife revised her admonition: “Stop lookin’ at this as … a buddy helpin’ a buddy or a fellow cop helpin’ a fellow cop.’”

As Phillips discussed the matter with McCall Police Officer Josh Johnson and McCall Police Chief Justin Williams, both agreed that Wood was displaying sociopathic tendencies. Contingency plans were made to carry out a major operation involving several agencies – the ADSO, the Valley County Sheriff’s Office, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, the McCall Police Department – in the event that Wood “loses his job or loses his guns.” 

Deputy Wood – who claims that he was trained by the Navy SEALs -- had pointedly mentioned to Phillips that his home was situated atop a hill with a commanding view of every possible approach. He also possessed “some exceptional – probably the best on the market sniper equipment…. Down to a $9,000 night vision scope.”

All of this was known to the ISP, the FBI, and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. This is why an officer safety bulletin was quietly issued on January 22^nd – but the public was not made aware that a heavily armed, taxpayer-subsidized sociopath was on the loose.

Wood, who had killed one senior citizen, severely beaten another, and had explicitly threatened to kill police officers, was never taken into custody. That type of treatment is reserved for annoying Mundanes like Meridian resident Matthew Townsend, who was charged with “witness intimidation” for a Facebook post criticizing Meridian Police Officer Richard Brockbank, an officious costumed coward who arrested Townsend without cause or justification. 

 

"No f****n' clue": Zollman.

Phillips, to his credit, defied Sheriff Zollman’s demand that he redact his report regarding Wood’s threat to his family and fellow officers. 

“I said, `I’m not redactin’ sh*t,’” Phillips recalled to the ISP. He grudgingly told the investigators that “my Sheriff and Undersheriff [are] good guys, but don’t have a f***in’ clue how to do their job. They’re in way over their head and with this they have no clue what to do.”

That much is screamingly obvious to any sentient observer. 

Bearing in mind Deputy Phillips’ concern that Wood might go on a killing spree if he lost his job, one must ask: Did that possibility color the Attorney General’s conclusions? Did the sacred responsibility to protect the lives of police officers who might be killed in a confrontation with Wood play a role in the decision to clear him, thereby allowing him to resume his career as a state-licensed menace to the hapless residents of Adams County?

This week's Freedom Zealot Podcast likewise deals with the murder of Jack Yantis and the insuperable Blue Privilege that protects his killers:

Dum spiro, pugno!