Amanda Parks

After making an unsuccessful, last-minute plea for house arrest, a Cody woman has begun serving a six-month jail term for destroying evidence in her husband’s sexual abuse case.

Amanda Parks, 38, received the sentence in July and was directed to check herself into the Park County Detention Center on Tuesday. Last week, however, Parks and her attorney made the case that the jail wouldn’t be able to meet her medical needs.

Given her underlying health conditions, “Requiring Ms. Parks to be without her necessary medication and diet plan would constitute a violation of her constitution[al] rights,” defense attorney Christina Cherni wrote in an August filing.

Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah disagreed after hearing testimony from Parks’ physician on Friday. Darrah said he believed the most pressing health concerns could be addressed by jail staff and that the other concerns were speculative. If he allowed Parks to avoid jail time, “everybody would be able to come and say that, ‘Well, I need this medication,’” the judge said, agreeing with the prosecution.

He allowed some leniency for regular medical check-ups, but otherwise stuck with the six-month sentence.

Parks also faces the potential of additional punishment, as a jury recently convicted her of a felony count of perjury, finding that she lied to a different judge about her income last fall.

Serving as an accessory

Both cases stem from a fall 2025 investigation into Parks’ soon-to-be-ex-husband, Jimmy Parks, who is now serving a 30- to 40-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a teenager.

The teen reported the abuse to a counselor in mid-October 2025 and then to law enforcement. He reported that Jimmy Parks had shown him pornography and sexually touched him on multiple occasions — including at Jimmy Parks’ business, PC Cowboys. 

After Jimmy Parks’s arrest in October 2025, Amanda Parks erased all the data from his cellphone and either hid or destroyed a hard drive from PC Cowboys.

Court records say that in a call placed from jail on Oct. 21, Jimmy Parks had told Amanda to retrieve the drive from the store, saying “that thing can probably just get, umm, like I know [one of their children] likes to break things into little tiny pieces, OK?”

Jimmy Parks later testified that the device contained sensitive customer information he didn’t want in the hands of police, but authorities believe it contained surveillance footage from the store that potentially could have bolstered the teen’s account of abuse.

In July, Amanda Parks pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of accessory after the fact and no contest to a misdemeanor count of conspiracy to to commit accessory after the fact. 

She testified that she deleted all the data from her husband’s phone on Oct. 17 — the day after his arrest.

“I found evidence that he 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,” Amanda Parks testified, “so I factory reset the phone.”

In retrospect, Parks said she wished she’d just downloaded evidence of the affair for her own records and then given the phone to police.

“It was a split-second, stupid decision and I know that and if I could go back, I would change it,” she said.

Amanda Parks’ timeline of events prompted scrutiny from Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Marina Tucker, who noted that data showed the phone was factory reset on Oct. 23 — just before she turned it over to Cody police.

Amanda Parks said that’s because she reset the phone two separate times, “or I deleted things off it at least at first [on Oct. 17], and then I factory reset it.”

She was not asked about what happened to the hard drive, and its whereabouts apparently remain unknown to authorities.

Unsure of guilt

Jimmy Parks denied the abuse allegations and took his case to trial in April. Following a week of testimony and arguments — and two days of deliberations — a 12-member jury convened in Cody unanimously convicted him on all counts, though he continues to assert his innocence.

At Jimmy Parks’ sentencing in August, a family friend testified that Amanda Parks also still thinks her husband is innocent, but she denied that and generally expressed uncertainty at her July sentencing.

Amanda Parks acknowledged that she initially told law enforcement something to the effect of, “No one should believe him [the victim] because he’s a liar.” She also testified that she’s “never had any proof or evidence of anything happening,” while “we have evidence and proof that he [the victim] has told many untrue stories.”

However, Amanda Parks said her perspective has changed “dramatically” since the start of the case.

“I have gone back and forth in not knowing … I have been conflicted and unsure and I don’t know [what happened], because I don’t know,” she said.

Probation versus incarceration

At sentencing, defense attorney Cherni argued that Amanda Parks should not be held responsible for what Jimmy Parks did.

“There’s little reason to believe that she would present any ongoing danger to the community,” Cherni said.

She contended that what Amanda Parks “endured” during her high-profile prosecution was a punishment in itself, recommending a term of six months of unsupervised probation.

She also argued that any stint of incarceration would “deeply traumatize” Jimmy and Amanda Parks’ children, who were temporarily taken away from Amanda following her husband’s arrest.

“They do not deserve to be ripped from their parents again, and especially when Amanda has done everything that she can to rebuild as much as possible,” Cherni argued. “We do believe that any part of incarceration would be inappropriate and would be an extreme injustice to not only the crime set forth but also to these children that are waiting for their mother.”

In contrast, Deputy County Attorney Tucker argued for six months of jail time.

“There is a real victim here who was impacted by Ms. Parks’ actions, and it is my position that … this is worthy of a higher punishment again than a standard misdemeanor traffic offense,” she said.

Tucker described the crimes as very serious offenses with very serious consequences.

“We are here today because Amanda Parks took very direct and calculated actions to help Jimmy Parks get away with sexual abuse of a minor,” Tucker said, adding that “the maximum sentence is not even sufficient for the type of crimes that Ms. Parks has committed.”

Serving as an accessory to a felony crime is generally a felony offense, but state law makes the crime a misdemeanor when the defendant assists a family member, like their husband.

‘Conspiring with a sexual predator’

As he prepared to impose a sentence on July 10, Judge Darrah said he believed testimony from a friend and family member that Amanda Parks is community-minded and has helped her own children and others. However, Darrah said her actions in this case — “actively tampering and/or destroying evidence and conspiring with a sexual predator” — were “totally inconsistent” with that.

“You have testified that you don’t know whether the minor victim made up the allegations while, at the same time, either directly or indirectly assisting your husband in covering up the horrific crimes he was convicted of by 12 jurors of his peers,” Darrah said. “Notwithstanding that, you indicated that as [late] as July 1, that you did not know if the minor victim was lying. … That is really hard for me to reconcile.”

He also said he didn’t believe Amanda Parks had taken full responsibility for her actions and believed a six-month sentence was necessary.

“Society demands that persons do not actively interfere with investigations into serious crimes, let alone those involving child victims,” Darrah said.

Amanda Parks became emotional upon hearing the sentence and repeatedly begged the judge to reconsider the jail time.

She said one reason she wiped the phone “was to protect my children and myself from Jimmy.”

“I know better than anybody that I don’t want Jimmy Parks near my kids. I have said that from the very beginning,” she added.

Amanda Parks also said she would do anything to prove she’s trying to atone for what she did — saying she was “terrified” of what her absence would do to her kids — but Darrah stuck with his sentence.

“What you have done has created the circumstance for your children,” he said, “and I still am only hearing about Jimmy Parks, Jimmy Parks” when “you made decisions to help your husband.”

A failed appeal

Cherni attempted to appeal Darrah’s sentence last month, but filed the notice too late; since the document was filed more than 30 days after the judgment was entered, Darrah immediately dismissed it.

Cherni then filed an emergency motion seeking to convert the jail sentence to house arrest, arguing the Cody jail is unable to meet Amanda Parks’ medical needs.

At a Friday hearing, Parks’ primary care physician explained she suffers from long-term health conditions that, if left untreated, can lead to serious conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Her doctor also said progress Amanda Parks has made toward better health could be erased during her jail stay.

However, testimony indicated that Parks would be able to have a modified diet in the jail and could take all but one of her medications.

Tucker noted the health issues date back decades and said it doesn’t appear there’s an imminent risk of severe problems. She also cautioned that many people held at the jail need to use its healthcare system.

Granting Amanda Parks’ request “would certainly set a precedent and open the door for any person to come forth with a doctor’s note saying, ‘I can't have the ideal treatment that I want in the jail; I can’t have the most optimal treatment, and therefore that’s a violation of my constitutional rights,’” Tucker said.

Darrah agreed and said he doesn’t believe the sentence amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. However, he did allow Parks to be released from jail one day per month to meet with a doctor and have blood work to monitor for any serious health issues.

She checked herself into the detention center Tuesday evening. 

As for her August perjury conviction, a sentencing date for that offense has not yet been scheduled in Park County District Court. 

Jimmy Parks, meanwhile, recently filed notice that he will appeal his three felony convictions and 30-year prison sentence.