William Bricker, 94, of Michigan has been charged with the following crimes: Immoral Acts with a Child and Immoral or Indecent Acts, and will potentially be tried in the state of Wyoming.
Bricker worked with children for over 50 years. Two men and one woman, who were children under Bricker’s care, have come forward recently with accusations against Bricker of child abuse, assault and molestation. The identities of the three people that came forward are protected under a Wyoming state statute.
The case is awaiting the extradition of Bricker from Michigan, where he currently resides, to Wyoming. Investigators first received information on the case in February of this year.
Sergeant Thomas Combs, said that he first received a packet of information that contained a letter from the Boy Scouts of America and several pages of computerized notes that were written by multiple contributors indicating allegations with multiple victims of sexual assault and immoral and indecent acts with children in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However as more information came in, it was clear that these child abuse and assault cases spanned over the course of three decades, not just two.
The Teton County Sheriff’s Office, the department leading the investigation, sent out the request for the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan to locate William Bricker and send him to Wyoming so that a hearing could be arranged. On September 23,
Bricker has yet to be sent to Wyoming. The hearing has not occurred yet because Bricker is not present.
“That’s part of the extradition process, and we are still waiting for them to be released,” Detective Dani Spence said. Spence is the lead detective on this case and was not able to make further comments because this case is still under ongoing investigation.
The crimes are claimed to have occurred in the 1960s, early 1970s and in the mid 1980s, all in Wyoming at the Teton Valley Ranch Camp. The Teton Valley Ranch Camp (TVRC), which was originally located in Kelly has since relocated to Jackson and come under new management and ownership. The TVRC released an official statement that addressed these allegations against one of its former employees, which said, “What we do know is that, as an organization dedicated to the development and care of children, we seek and support justice for any person or persons who may have been harmed and lived with this for decades.”
The foundation refuses to comment on the proceedings and that they leave it in the law enforcement officials’ hands.
Ty Peterson, supervisor of Social Services in Albany County, is not aware of any child abuse cases at any summer camps in Albany County. However, the correct way to deal with a child abuse case can be sometimes hard to see, at least it was in this case. According to a CBS Detroit report, one of the people that came forward said that he had informed one of his scout leaders of what had happened in the late 1960s, but nothing was ever done about it, until recently.
Fortunately, this is not the way that child services would treat the situation. Peterson said, “It would first be referred to law enforcement and we would let them lead. Depending on whether the perpetrator has access to the child, then we would make sure that the kid is put in foster care, to keep them safe.”
