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Earlier this year, a Wyoming State trooper was arrested. Agents with the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Wyoming Department of Criminal Justice arrested Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Franklin Joseph Ryle Jr. in Douglas, Wyoming, on criminal civil rights charges.

It appears that Trooper Ryle got the bright idea to kidnap a truck driver among other get rich quick schemes, run the truck into Trooper Ryle's cruiser, kill the driver in such a way that the driver's death would be thought of as accident related, and then sue the trucking company for damages. Trooper Ryle told his wife and at least one other trooper, Devan Henderson, about the idea and said, "I will never have to work again!"

From the Wyoming Gazette: "In a previously sealed affidavit, FBI agent Richard P. Fanelli said Ryle stopped a Wal-Mart truck on Jan. 8 near Douglas, handcuffed the driver and told him he was under arrest on a Colorado warrant of failing to appear in court. Douglas is 115 miles northwest of Cheyenne."

"According to Fanelli, the driver told investigators Ryle drove him to Douglas, parked the patrol car outside a house and left him locked in the back seat. Ryle then took the driver back to his truck and released him."

"The affidavit said Ryle told investigators that he had driven to his home with the truck driver because he had a sick child. Ryle said he released the driver after checking with dispatchers a second time about any outstanding warrants and learning that there was none."

Upon checking computer records, it was found that there were no checks on warrants done by Ryles. Though it would appear that Henderson knew of the plot, he was not at the scene of the kidnapping.

The plot would have gone unreported but Ryle's wife told her brother, who works for the Casper Police Department, on January 14th of Ryle's uncompleted scheme.

"Andrea Ryle told investigators that her husband told her he planned to smash the truck driver's head against the windshield, "to make it appear he died from injuries from the crash." She said he then intended to drive the truck down the road and smash it into his patrol car."

According to Henderson, Ryles said that he could not use a Wal-Mart truck due to the GPS system which would show the truck had been stopped for a longer period of time than usual.

Ryle pleaded guilty in July to charges that he violated the civil rights of a Wal-Mart trucker by kidnapping the man in an aborted scheme to murder him. He will be sentenced in October. Prosecutors are expected to ask that Ryle be sentenced to 19 to 22 years in prison.

The story does not end there, though. During the investigation of the kidnapping, investigators found that Ryle and Henderson had been up to other criminal behavior.

From Police magazine: "Authorities say Devan Henderson and Franklin Ryle Jr. smuggled steroids from Mexico to Wyoming in a vanilla bottle, while Adam Longo allegedly purchased them at a Casper gym. Agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation learned about the allegations earlier this year while investigating Ryle for kidnapping a Wal-Mart truck driver."

Henderson has been on administrative leave since February.

While it is very rare to hear of any state troopers involved in criminal behavior, it appears that Wyoming has had their share of crooked troopers this year. It really makes one think about ‘who ya gonna call' if you need a state trooper in Wyoming!