A judge has thrown out a perjury charge that prosecutors filed against a Cody woman, ruling that the state didn’t have enough evidence to back up the allegation.

The Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office asserted that 37-year-old Amanda Parks failed to disclose her ownership of a Florida townhouse when she requested a court-appointed attorney back in October. However, based on the information that police have gathered to date, Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah said it’s unclear if Parks actually owns the property in question.

While the state presented “a really good case” at a Jan. 8 preliminary hearing, “there’s a piece missing that I don’t find,” Darrah said.

Although the felony count of perjury has been dismissed, Parks continues to face three misdemeanor charges, which arguably contain more serious allegations. The two counts of accessory after the fact and another of conspiracy to commit accessory after the fact allege Parks attempted to hinder a sex crime investigation into her husband, 49-year-old Jimmy Parks.

Cody police arrested Jimmy Parks in October on allegations that he sexually abused a minor over a more than year-long period. In the wake of that arrest, authorities allege that Amanda Parks aided her husband by erasing all the data from his cellphone and hiding or destroying surveillance footage from their Cody business, where some of the sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred.

Amanda Parks has not yet had the opportunity to formally respond to the accessory allegations, as the Jan. 8 hearing dealt only with the felony count.

Probing different LLCs

The perjury charge stemmed from statements made during a confidential juvenile court hearing involving both Amanda and Jimmy Parks. During the Oct. 20 proceeding, presiding District Judge Bill Simpson posed a series of questions about the Parkses financial situation to determine if they qualified for court-appointed attorneys.

According to Cody Police Det. Tyler Eubanks’ recounting of the hearing, Amanda Parks testified that her home was her only significant asset; she reportedly indicated that she owned the property through a company called Oliver and Company LLC. Amanda Parks also represented to the court that she had no income, according to the detective’s summary, and Simpson concluded she was entitled to a public defender in that proceeding. (She is being represented by private counsel, William Appleton, in the criminal case.)

However, Eubanks later came to suspect that the Parkses owned other assets that they didn’t disclose — including a roughly $230,000 townhouse in Osceola County, Florida, held by AAWLC LLC.

The detective’s suspicion was based in part on a conversation that Jimmy Parks had with one of his family members on a recorded call from the Park County Detention Center. On that call, Jimmy Parks indicated that he intended to sell the Florida townhouse, but his grandfather “tried to dissuade him from that,” Eubanks said, “stating that [with] him [Jimmy] being incarcerated, Amanda would need an income, which that property provides.”

Additionally, Eubanks reviewed another call in which Amanda discussed the Florida property with Jimmy and asked if they’d paid the mortgage. Combined with corporate documents showing that Amanda Parks was the CEO and registered agent for AAWLC, the detective concluded she owned the property and had failed to disclose it to the court.

However, Judge Darrah noted that Amanda Parks’ status as AAWLC’s agent and CEO does not necessarily mean she was a “member,” or owner, of the LLC, the judge noted.

“The thing I didn't hear was percentages of ownership, how much income she had ever derived from it, if she owned anything in that company,” Darrah said.

He gave an example from his own experience, recalling how the building that housed his former law office in Powell belonged to a company he owned apart from his wife.

“Unfortunately, I guess, for the state in this circumstance, I understand the law as it pertains to LLCs,” Darrah said.

Debating need

The judge also suggested that if the property in Florida is owned by the LLC, then only the couple’s interest in the LLC would have needed to be disclosed to the court and its value could hinge on how much debt was on the property.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Marina Tucker — who argued the state had enough evidence for the perjury charge to advance to district court — offered in response that “there are a lot of people who need public defenders who don't have vacation homes in Florida.”

“And the ability to set up an LLC to have a vacation home in Florida so that you can qualify for a public defender is, frankly, a flaw in the system, if that is the nature of the system,” Tucker said.

Darrah said the issue is “a big deal” to him, given the limited resources of the state public defender’s office, and said he was glad the state takes the issue seriously. He also noted prosecutors could refile the perjury charge if they uncover more evidence.

“I think if there is an ownership interest, it’s going to come out and the detective will find it,” Darrah said.

During his testimony, Eubanks said he had concerns the Parkses were attempting to hide assets, saying he listened to conversations in which the couple discussed the possibility of selling vehicles owned by one of their LLCs and of paying off personally owned vehicles and placing them under the ownership of the LLC.

“Paying off a personally owned vehicle and putting it into the LLC that they didn’t disclose to the court was a red flag to me,” Eubanks said.

In the charging affidavit, Eubanks also said he heard calls indicating the Parkses also owned cattle they hadn’t disclosed, but that allegation wasn’t presented at the preliminary hearing.

In defending Amanda Parks at last week’s hearing, Appleton not only cited the shortcomings of the state’s case, but also suggested there had been “a great deal of confusion” during the October hearing in juvenile court. Appleton said his client had indicated she was unsure about some of the couple’s assets, and had to rely on Jimmy Parks’ responses. For example, Jimmy Parks reportedly clarified that Amanda Parks’ mother is also a member of the LLC that owns the couple’s Cody home.

Other charges still pending

Jimmy Parks is himself facing two felony counts of perjury related to statements he allegedly made at that October hearing. One count similarly alleges that he failed to disclose an ownership interest in the Florida townhouse and in a couple vehicles. The other perjury count asserts that Jimmy Parks gave false testimony when he told the court that, “I don’t have a cellphone number.”

Jimmy Parks was jailed at the time he made the statement and didn’t have access to a cellphone, but Eubanks said the defendant had one at the time of his arrest days earlier; it’s that phone that Amanda Parks is alleged to have later wiped, while police and sheriff’s deputies were in the process of searching the couple’s home.

Jimmy Parks waived his right to a preliminary hearing on the perjury charges last month and formally denied them at a Tuesday arraignment in Park County District Court; District Judge Bobbi Overfield of Thermopolis is presiding over the case because the state plans to call Simpson as a witness.

Parks has also pleaded not guilty to three felony counts related to the sexual abuse allegations, including charges of first- and second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. That case remains in front of Simpson, with a trial tentatively set for April.

As of Tuesday, no trial date had been set for Amanda Parks on her pending misdemeanor charges in circuit court. She is free on a $15,000 surety bond while Jimmy Parks remains in custody, with his bail set at a combined total of $210,000 cash.