Bison protesters enter guilty pleas at the Yellowstone Justice Center

Mammoth, WY.   –   Cody J. Cyson, of Minnetonka, Minnesota and Thomas L. Brown of East Hardwick, Vermont, each entered guilty pleas today in US District Court at the Yellowstone Justice Center in Mammoth, Wyoming, to the charges of entering a closed area in Yellowstone National Park and interference with an agency function. The defendants were involved in a protest attempting to stop buffalo slaughter at the Stephens Creek facility on March 6th, detailed in this article.

Both subjects had been charged on March 6, 2018. Cyson received a sentence of six days in jail with credit for time served, a $250.00 fine on the charge of entering a closed area and a $250.00 fine on the charge of interference with an agency function, a $500.00 community service payment and $50.00 in special assessment. Brown received an identical sentence. Both Cyson and Brown are banned from entry into Yellowstone National Park for a period of five years and will serve five years of unsupervised probation.

Hanna F. Ponder, of Donnelly, Idaho, pleaded guilty to one charge of entering a closed area and was sentenced to six days in jail with credit for time served, fined $500.00, a $500.00 community service payment, $40.00 in special assessment, and banned from Yellowstone National Park for five years and five years of unsupervised probation. She had been charged on March 6, 2018 for entering the bison closure are in the Reese Creek drainage of the park.

All three defendants appeared before and were sentenced by US Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman.