Geoffrey McAndrews

Two days after Kanye West voted for himself for president in Cody, a man showed up at his ranch south of the city.

Claiming to be from a “revolutionary army,” the man reportedly told security personnel he was there to see West’s brother, Tony. Despite being told there was no one by that name at West Ranch — and the fact that West is an only child — the unwelcome visitor reportedly refused to leave until law enforcement was called.

The 50-year-old man was ultimately taken into custody by the Park County Sheriff’s Office, before prosecutors allowed him to go free the next day.

It marked the third time in six months that someone had shown up at the celebrity’s ranch under strange circumstances and been arrested, only to have all charges dropped.

In June, prosecutors dismissed a criminal trespassing charge against a 22-year-old Denver man who refused to leave the West Ranch after concerns were raised about his competency; during an initial court appearance, the young adult had reported hearing things, saying he had a “pirate’s curse,” and suggesting he might get a “signal” from the celebrity. The man was released to his mother, who traveled to Cody from Pennsylvania to get him.

A Park County prosecutor had announced his intent to seek jail time in another trespassing case on the ranch, involving a 19-year-old Powell man who security guards accused of traveling onto the property in May and masturbating. For his part, the young man contended he had simply been looking for a place to pull over and sleep, and that the guards had falsely accused him of masturbating.

The case was set to go to trial in Park County Circuit Court, but prosecutors had a hard time reaching the security guard. Deputy Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield said West brought in a new security team and the guard from May’s incident had moved back to California. Although the state would have covered the man’s travel expenses, he was reluctant to give up paying gigs to come testify, Hatfield said. So, with no practical way to compel the witness’ appearance in time for a trial, and with the misdemeanor case hanging on the guard’s testimony, Hatfield dismissed the case with prejudice — meaning it cannot be refiled.

The experience also gave the prosecutor some reticence to pursuing future trespassing charges at West’s ranch.

“With our difficulties in getting witnesses out there, it’s going to have to be a really good case for us to go forward with it,” Hatfield said in an interview last week.

That was one factor, he said, in why he let an alleged trespasser go free last month.

Geoffrey A. McAndrews, who’s lived in both Jackson Hole and Concord, California, showed up at West Ranch on the late afternoon of Nov. 5, charging documents say. It was two days after the presidential election, in which West had traveled to Cody and cast a write-in vote for himself, documenting the whole process on Twitter.

A security guard told the sheriff’s office that McAndrews drove across the cattle guard that marks the entrance to the property around 5 p.m. When the guard approached, McAndrews demanded to see a man named “Tony.”

McAndrews would later tell Sheriff’s Deputy Phil Johnson that he “was not trespassing because he was meeting Kanye West’s brother ‘Tony,’” the deputy recounted in an affidavit; the 50-year-old also claimed he never went onto the property.

McAndrews is best known as a backcountry snowboarder; he was featured in the 2014 documentary “Some Thing Else,” in which he snowboards through Wyoming’s Salt River Range and smokes marijuana inside a hut he built without Forest Service permission. In the film, McAndrews also indicated he has bipolar disorder, describing lengthy manic depressive episodes.

At West’s ranch last month, McAndrews reportedly told the guard he was part of “a revolutionary army” and later told the sheriff’s office he worked as a “foreign army commander.”

The security guard told deputies that McAndrews responded with vulgar and angry language each time he was asked to leave West Ranch, departing only after being told that law enforcement had been contacted.

Deputy Johnson pulled McAndrews over as he drove toward Cody on Wyo. Highway 120. While speaking with deputies, McAndrews’ demeanor and tone went up and down — at one point talking about family members who “were kidnapped by high-up government officials,” Johnson wrote.

During their conversation, the deputy also detected the smell of marijuana; West’s security personnel reported McAndrews had thrown a green leafy substance out of his vehicle and eaten a portion of it while leaving the ranch.

Ultimately, “due to the fact that he was not a Park County resident and some concern I had regarding his demeanor and public safety,” Johnson said he placed McAndrews under arrest.

It was a short stay, however, as Hatfield had the man released the following day.

The prosecutor noted that, unlike the past two cases, in which the alleged trespassers were still on West’s property when the sheriff’s office arrived, McAndrews had left; Hatfield also felt there was some question about whether he had knowingly trespassed on West’s property — and then there was the issue of getting a witness to testify in court.

“Nobody should be subject to a bunch of wackadoodles coming out there and bothering him,” Hatfield said. But on the other hand, he said there’s no sense in keeping people in jail and moving forward when an uncertain case hinges on a security guard who may not show up at trial.

In this most recent instance, he decided to give McAndrews “the benefit of the doubt.”

McAndrews’ release on Nov. 6 didn’t quite end the story, though. Later that afternoon, West’s security guard reported McAndrews was back on the highway outside the ranch. The call ended without any action being taken, but that same day, court records indicate McAndrews ran into trouble with Thermopolis police, as he was issued misdemeanor citations for breach of peace and interference with a peace officer.

McAndrews has pleaded not guilty to the charges, with a pretrial conference scheduled for next month in Hot Springs County Circuit Court.