Authorities allege a 40-year-old rural Powell man beat his father, threatened him with a gun and fired a shot into his room during a Dec. 18 altercation.

Park County prosecutors have charged Brian C. Lewis with two felony counts of aggravated assault and battery and a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment. One of the felony counts alleges Lewis caused or attempted to cause serious bodily injury to his father — who reportedly suffered a brain bleed — while the other alleges Lewis threatened to use a drawn deadly weapon.

As of Monday, Lewis remained in custody at the Park County Detention Center, with bail set at $250,000 cash. A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for today (Tuesday).

December altercation

Charging documents say the incident took place at Lewis’ Heart Mountain home early on Dec. 18.

The charging affidavit is based on an account that Lewis’ father gave to the Park County Sheriff’s Office the day after the incident; Lewis is not quoted in the document.

According to what Lewis’ father told Park County Sheriff’s Cpl. Tyler Patterson, Lewis had been drinking and began yelling at his father around 1 a.m., while the man was trying to sleep.

The father reported that Lewis pressed him into the wall, so he began chopping at Lewis’ throat in an effort to get him out of the way, Patterson recounted in an affidavit.

Lewis then responded by punching his father in the stomach and head “approximately 15 times,” continuing after the man fell to the ground, the affidavit quotes the father as saying.

“[The father] stated he bled all over the house and was thrown through a wall in [his] room, breaking the wall and a mirror,” Patterson wrote.

Lewis then trapped the man in the room, drawing a pistol and pointing it at him, the affidavit alleges. The father recalled telling his son, “Go ahead and kill me,” to which Lewis allegedly responded, “I won’t do that. I want you to suffer.”

Lewis is then alleged to have fired a round into the floor of his father’s room before throwing the weapon at him, the charging documents say.

Lewis eventually allowed his father to leave, though not before breaking his phone and allegedly telling him that “if he called the cops he [Lewis] would find him and kill him,” Patterson wrote.

The man later went to Cody Regional Health, but reportedly told the emergency room staff he’d tripped on a branch and fallen; he reported the alleged assault to the sheriff’s office on the evening of Dec. 19, after he’d reportedly returned to his home in Washington state, the affidavit says.

The charging documents quote the man as saying he received six stitches and was diagnosed with a brain bleed; Patterson said he reviewed photos that show the man’s left eye almost swollen shut and bruises on multiple parts of his body.

Lewis was arrested on Dec. 21. 

‘Past behavior’

At his initial appearance in Park County Circuit Court the following day, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ericka Smith asked for Lewis’ bond to be set at $250,000 cash. Smith said the sum was necessary to secure the community and keep Lewis’ family safe.

“The behavior that we see in this case before the court right now is in-line with Mr. Lewis’ past behavior,” Smith added, telling the court that Lewis has a prior conviction in Washington for harassing a witness and for interfering with a 911 call in Park County in 2020.

In that May 2020 incident, which occurred in the Meeteetse area, charging documents say Lewis took his then-wife’s phone and placed her in a “bear hug type hold.” The woman said she hit her head on a door in the ensuing struggle, causing a goose egg.

Lewis served four days in jail and six months of unsupervised probation for misdemeanor interference with emergency calls, court records show, while prosecutors agreed to drop additional misdemeanor counts of domestic battery and false imprisonment.

The couple separated a few months after the altercation and later divorced.

Lewis is currently suing his ex-wife in Park County District Court for defamation, alleging in part that she told another person that he is a convicted felon, when he is not. Meanwhile, she has filed her own complaint against Lewis, alleging he maliciously sued her and had no legal basis to do so.

District Judge Bill Simpson had dismissed Lewis’ complaint late last year, but the Wyoming Supreme Court reversed the judge’s decision in October; the high court found the dispute needs to be settled by a jury.

Lewis’ father reportedly indicated to the sheriff’s office that he’d been staying with Lewis while he prepared for the defamation case.

At his Dec. 22 appearance in circuit court on the new criminal charges, Lewis said he’s had “a rough go over the last five years.”

“I need help,” he said, “and sitting in a jail cell isn’t going to do that.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with you getting help,” responded Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah, “but that’s going to have to be something you’re going to need to talk to your attorney about.”

Lewis said he may hire his attorney in the defamation case for the criminal case as well.