A Cody man has been ordered to serve 30 to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing a teen in 2024 and 2025.

Following two days of deliberations in April, a 12-member jury voted unanimously to convict Jimmy Parks of all three felony abuse charges he faced. However, at his July 17 sentencing, Parks continued to assert his innocence.

While saying he respected the verdict, “I do continue to believe that I’m innocent of these charges and I cannot honestly admit to conduct that I do not believe occurred,” Parks said. He requested probation.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Marina Tucker countered by asking for 50 to 60 years of incarceration.

“Realistically, Mr. Parks committed and has been convicted of some of the worst crimes that a person can commit,” Tucker told the court, adding that the damage Park caused to the teen will “likely last a lifetime.”

District Judge Bobbi Overfield ultimately landed on the 30- to 40-year term, saying the sentence was consistent with similar cases.

On Tuesday, Parks pleaded no contest to a separate felony count of perjury — related to false testimony about his assets he gave at a fall court appearance — and accepted an overlapping three- to five-year prison term for that offense.

Meanwhile, Parks’ soon-to-be ex-wife, Amanda Parks, will soon begin serving six months of jail time for interfering with last fall’s investigation into her husband’s conduct. She’s also set to be tried on a felony perjury charge of her own later this month.

Report triggers investigation

The case began in mid-October, when a teenager told a counselor that Parks had shown him pornography, touched the teen’s genitals and had the teen touch Parks’ genitals on multiple occasions. The counselor contacted Cody police, and after the teen shared his account with law enforcement, Parks was quickly arrested.

The teen has mental limitations and much of the trial centered around his credibility, with the defense pointing out other stories the teen had exaggerated or made up.

His testimony at trial differed in multiple ways from his initial report to law enforcement, but he remained consistent in saying that Parks had sexually abused him multiple times.

Searching the office

Some of the abuse reportedly occurred in Jimmy Parks’ office at his since-shuttered IT business, PC Cowboys.

The teen mentioned specific porn sites that Parks had shown him, and Cody police found that Parks’ computer had accessed three of those sites over 9,600 times; Parks said the teen must have visited those sites on his own.

As a part of their searches, investigators found a small amount of semen on the floor mat beneath Parks’ office chair and lab testing indicated that the material came from Parks. The sample contained the DNA of a second individual, but the state crime laboratory was unable to determine the identity of that genetic material.

When asked to explain the semen, Parks testified that he sometimes had sex with his wife at the office and didn’t know who else’s DNA was in the sample.

Wiped and destroyed devices

Investigators also learned that Amanda Parks had wiped all the data from Jimmy Parks’ cellphone after his arrest and — following coded instructions he provided to her from jail — either concealed or destroyed a hard drive suspected to contain PC Cowboys’ surveillance footage; authorities want to review the footage to see if it corroborated the teen’s account of the timeline of abuse.

Jimmy Parks admitted at trial that he’d directed Amanda to destroy the hard drive, but said that’s because it contained customers’ data that he didn’t want police to have. As for the cellphone, Parks said he had no idea why Amanda had wiped it.

Amanda testified at a July hearing that she factory wiped the phone after finding evidence that Parks “was having an extramarital affair, or having extramarital affairs, without my knowledge, and I was nervous about what would happen to my relationship with my husband at the time.”

When Cody police came looking for the phone days later, Amanda said she reset it for a second time.

“I regret it,” she said amid tears. “If I could go back, I wouldn’t have done it.”

At a July 10 hearing, Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah ordered Amanda Parks to serve 180 days in jail for two misdemeanor counts of accessory after the fact and another of conspiracy to commit accessory after the fact.

Not seeing any evidence

At Jimmy Parks’ July 17 sentencing, the defense and prosecution painted very different pictures of the defendant.

Dr. Adam Peters — a family friend, children’s physician and leader at Parks’ church — recalled Parks helping with service projects in the community and described him as someone who’s always been “really nice.”

“I don’t know what happened behind closed doors or whatever. I can’t say anything there. I have no witness there,” Peters told the court, “but what I can say is that when I was with Jimmy, I did not see violent tendencies. I saw a guy who was a friend — and he has been a friend.”

He also made a point of rebutting any suggestion that their church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would attempt to cover up any abuse. Peters said the church has strict policies that require any abuse to be reported to authorities and that, regardless of his continued assertion of innocence, Parks would never be allowed to work with youth at the church again.

Peters added that, “I would never try to cover up [for] someone who was a sex offender against a child. Period.” 

Peters also referenced the views of Amanda Parks, who has since filed for divorce from Jimmy.

“Amanda’s not real happy with Jimmy, but Amanda still thinks he’s innocent,” Peters told the district court. “That’s really important.”

At a July 1 hearing in circuit court, Amanda Parks testified that she hasn’t “had any proof or evidence of anything happening” between the teen and Jimmy Parks and that the victim “has told many untrue stories.”

However, she also said she’s “gone back and forth.”

“I have been conflicted and unsure,” she said, “and I don’t know, because I don’t know.”

Prior abuse alleged

In support of its call for prison time, the state called one of Jimmy Parks’ previous wives as a witness.

The Cheyenne woman — who was married to Parks from 2003 to 2009 — testified that her relationship with Parks involved fear, psychological trauma, intimidation, deceit, and physical and emotional abuse. She said Parks struck her in the face, threw her against the wall, insulted her and made her feel “that I was imagining situations.”

The woman’s now-adult son also testified, saying he and his siblings were physically abused by Parks and taken into protective custody.

“I wanted the court to see today that this person has been this way for so long and continues to be this way,” the woman said, adding, “It’s not a one-time thing and he’s not going to ever change.”

Though the woman reported the abuse to law enforcement, nothing came of her allegations. At one point she indicated that was because “I could not monetarily afford to keep pushing things forward,” but after Parks’ defense attorney Sam Krone sharply questioned that account — noting you don’t need money to have a criminal case prosecuted — the woman said it was hard to remember the details.

In his statement to the court, Parks disputed his ex’s accusations and said she had made similar allegations against her previous husband.

Krone described the testimony from Parks’ prior family members as unreliable and objected to the court even hearing it.

When Judge Overfield later imposed the prison sentence, she indicated that she wasn’t factoring in the woman’s testimony about Parks, saying they were not there “to sentence him for what may or may not have happened 16 years ago.”

A request for probation

In his remarks, Jimmy Parks was critical of law enforcement and effectively asserted that authorities had it in for him.

“When my name got brought up [last fall] and an arrest warrant was issued for me, it was pretty much, the Park County Attorney’s Office was out for blood,” Parks said.

He said he’s not the “monster” the prosecution made him out to be and described himself as a good family man and a productive member of society.

“I understand that the accomplishments that I’ve made in my life don’t change this conviction, but I would hope that the court would consider the entirety of my life rather than just this, the worst allegation possibly ever that could be made against a person,” Parks said.

Krone noted that his client had no prior criminal convictions outside of speeding tickets and had been deemed to be at a low or minimal risk of reoffending.

“I think that the court can comfortably place him on probation,” Krone said.

He said five years of supervision would provide safety to the community and give Parks an opportunity to rehabilitate himself. 

Krone also argued that his client “has been punished quite a bit already,” noting the loss of his business, reputation and family.

Seeking accountability

Prosecutor Tucker, however, called for decades of prison time.

“It is the state’s position that he has no criminal history because he has not been held accountable until this case,” she said.

Tucker also noted that the probation and parole agent who composed a presentence report expressed “great concern” about the trauma Parks had caused and noted the lack of accountability for his actions.

In response to Parks’ criticism of his ex-wife, law enforcement and herself, Tucker said the common theme is “that there’s always someone else to blame for this situation.”

“Jimmy Parks repeatedly sexually abused a vulnerable minor child …,” Tucker said. “He has refused to take accountability for his actions, continuing to blame everybody except himself.” 

She encouraged Overfield to hold Parks accountable and the judge soon imposed the three to four decades of prison time.