Caleb Waldron

A Clark man is alleged to have attacked a family member and then dragged her back into the house to stop her from calling police.

Caleb J. Waldron has been charged with kidnapping, robbery and three misdemeanor counts in connection with the incident, which began on the night of Aug. 17 and continued into the early morning hours of Aug. 18. Waldron was arrested the day of the incident and has remained in custody since then.

At a preliminary hearing last week, Waldron’s attorney sought to have all three felony counts dismissed, arguing that even if all the allegations were true, they didn’t support the high-level charges. Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah appeared to agree that the state’s case isn’t particularly strong, but he ultimately ruled there was enough evidence for all but one of the two kidnapping charges to proceed toward a trial.

Darrah also lowered Waldron’s bond from $100,000 cash to $50,000 cash or surety, though the suspect remained at the Park County Detention Center on Friday.

During the hearing, a prosecutor remarked about the unusual way that Waldron — who appeared by video from the jail — presented himself in court, with Waldron’s attorney indicating it’s the result of a disability. There have been questions about the 28-year-old’s mental health in the past: A judge in Pinellas County, Florida, adjudicated Waldron as incompetent in early 2021, court records there show.

A family dispute escalates

In the pending Park County case, Waldron is alleged to have attacked his sister amid an argument about family finances. She told authorities that Waldron became “enraged” when she warned she’d call the police if he became violent.

According to her account, “Caleb [Waldron], while standing, grabbed [his sister] by the throat and pushed her over hard enough to knock over the [La-Z-Boy] reclining chair she was sitting in as well,” Park County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Tisdale wrote in a report. The siblings’ mother was also reportedly knocked to the ground in the altercation, but was not injured.

The deputy quoted the sister as saying that Waldron’s eyes, “were solid black like a monster’s eyes” and that he said something like, “You do know I can kill you, right?”

Waldron is also alleged to have grabbed his sister’s cellphone and the nearby landline to prevent her from calling police. Prosecutors used that allegation to support the charge of robbery, contending Waldron intended to steal the cellphone and inflicted bodily injury as he did so.

Defense attorney Sarah Miles contended that the allegations — which also formed the basis for a misdemeanor count of interference with an emergency call — didn’t amount to a robbery.

“I think that this is a loose, loose, loose tie here,” Miles said at the Aug. 29 hearing.

However, Darrah found prosecutors had met the low legal hurdle of probable cause to advance toward a trial.

After Waldron took her phone, the woman said she ran outside to her mother’s car. However, she said Waldron caught up to her, grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the vehicle.

“Caleb [Waldron] would not let go until she convinced him that she would not call the police,” Tisdale said of the woman’s account.

Waldron then dragged his sister back inside — Tisdale later found bruises on her left forearm that potentially were consistent with her account, along with other bruises on her back and throat — and he also grabbed his mother, the charging documents allege.

Once back inside, the sister said Waldron demanded more promises that the police would not be called and then indicated he was going to leave. However, she said Waldron instead sat in his car until roughly 3 a.m., preventing anyone else from leaving.

The woman said she could have called police while Waldron was in the car — as she’d retrieved her cellphone from Waldron’s room — but she was afraid he would run back inside, get a gun and retaliate against the family if he saw headlights approaching, Tisdale recounted.

“She didn’t want to end up making things dangerous again,” Tisdale said, adding that, “she felt that she would be in danger if she called law enforcement.”

The sister instead got up early and left the home, so she could “make a call from safety,” Tisdale said.

The woman arrived at the law enforcement center in Cody around 9 a.m. to report the incident.

Deputy Tisdale also spoke to Waldron’s mother, who said she’d witnessed the violence, but she didn’t want to press charges or get her son in trouble, the affidavit says. Meanwhile, the woman’s stepfather, who was also in the home at the time, said he had not witnessed any of the night’s events. However, the man said he had comforted the two women after the incident, Tisdale testified.

Arrested and charged

Deputies pulled Waldron over outside the law enforcement center around noon on Aug. 18 and took him into custody without incident. He declined to speak to the officers, the report says.

Tisdale arrested Waldron on three misdemeanor charges — domestic battery, interference with emergency calls and false imprisonment. Prosecutors then added the three felonies.

At the Aug. 29 hearing, Deputy Park County Attorney Laura Newton agreed to dismiss one kidnapping count that alleged Waldron had “unlawfully removed” his sister or mother, saying she didn’t have the evidence to back up that allegation. The remaining count of kidnapping alleges that Waldron unlawfully confined one of the women, doing so with the intent to injure or terrorize them.

Miles asked that it be dropped, too. While Waldron’s family members may have been afraid, “I don't know that there’s any evidence of him trying to terrorize them” while he was sitting in the car outside the house, Miles said.

However, Darrah said that “by that point in time, she had several injuries and … in my mind, she had been confined, she had been terrorized.” He found probable cause to support the kidnapping charge, but noted it will ultimately be up to a jury to determine whether prosecutors can prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt — a substantially higher standard of proof.

Newton asked for bond to remain at $100,000, citing significant concern for the alleged victims, while Miles asked for her client to be released on a signature bond with orders to stay away from them.

Darrah said he couldn’t justify a signature bond, but felt lowering it to $50,000 cash or surety was reasonable. If Waldron posts bail, he’ll need to stay away from his home and the family members (at a distance of at least 500 yards), wear a GPS ankle monitor and check in at the Cody Law Enforcement Center twice a day.

Waldron said he moved to Park County in February. Court records show he previously lived in Powell, as Waldron was prosecuted for growing marijuana in the city in 2013.

His next court hearing will be an arraignment in Park County District Court.